LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

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T NITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



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Jonathan Haralson is at present one of the Supreme Judges 
of Alabama. His home is at Selma, though most of his time is 
spent in Montgomery, in attending to the duties of his office. 

In personal appearance, he is a man of medium height and 
build, well preserved, and has an immense capacity for 
work. Every position to which he has been called has been 
filled with conspicuous success ; every trust committed to him 
has been administered so as to win the admiration of all. His 
career, whether private or professional, has been an unbroken 
advance from the first until now. 

The University of Alabama has the honor of being the institu- 
tion where Judge Haralson received his literary education, and 
from which he graduated with the degree of A. B. in 185 1. 
In 1889 he received the degree of ll. d. from Mercer Univer- 
sity. 

For years he was a member of the State Mission Board of 
Alabama, seldom ever missing a meeting of its session. He 
was also a member of the Board of Trustees of Howard College, 
and rendered to that institution great service. In 1874 he was 
elected President of the Alabama Baptist Convention, and served 
in this capacity continuously until 1892, when his duties as 
Supreme Judge prevented his attending upon its sessions. 

On the death of Dr. J. P. Boyce, when the Southern Baptist 
Convention met at Memphis in 1889, and various names were 
presented to the great gathering there assembled — names of 
brethren from different sections of the South and honored among 
us — Judge Haralson was elected by a handsome majority. He 
has been re-elected at each succeeding session, and has given 
great satisfaction as a presiding officer. He presides without the 
show of presiding. He knows parliamentary law, but is not a 
slave to it ; he rather makes it his servant to do his bidding, and 
so opens a way foi the easy conduct of the business of the Con- 
vention. An excellent sketch of Judge Haralson appeared in 
the ''Seminary Magazine" in Louisville in 1893, from the pen 
of Dr. J. M. Frost, from which this note is compiled. 




Judge Jonathan Haralson, LL. D. 



THE 



Southern Baptist Pulpit 



EDITED BY, 

REV. J. F. LOVE 



WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

JONATHAN HARALSON, LL. D. 



PHILADELPHIA 

AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY 

I8 95 










^v* 



Copyright 1895 by the 
American Baptist Publication Society 



THE BAPTISTS OF AMERICA 

A People who Love an 
OPEN BIBLE and A PURE GOSPEL 

THE EDITOR 



PREFACE 



As it is the province of the butler to serve the 
viands and not entertain the guests, we will not in- 
trude on the reader a long dissertation on even so fine 
a dish as we are, by the graciousness of the brethren, 
able to provide. The intellectual and spiritual repast 
to which all are invited will proclaim its own excel- 
lence. 

The Southern Baptist Convention constitutes the 
largest deliberative body in the world, and though 
a few excellent volumes of sermons by single indi- 
viduals have been published, no book representing 
the pulpit of the Convention has yet appeared. It 
was thought that such a volume would be a fitting 
memorial to our fiftieth anniversary as a separate or- 
ganization. 

The book is truly representative though by no 
means exhaustive of the pulpit talent among us ; and 
we believe its household value will be greatly in- 
creased by the portraits and biographical sketches 
of the contributors. All will welcome among the 
preachers, the face and sketch of the preachers' 
friend, Judge Haralson, the president of the Conven- 
tion. 

I wish here to record my profound thanks to my 
brethren, who, while averse to publicity, have, in the 
interests of the enterprise and through personal kind- 
ness, furnished the material for the book and made 

my cherished plan possible. 

J. F. Love. 

Suffolk, Va., October, 1895. 



INTRODUCTION 



The meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention 
at Washington City, on the ioth of May, 1895, was 
one, in some of its features, of unusual interest and 
importance. The Convention was organized in 
the city of Augusta, Ga., on May 8th, 1845. This 
meeting, therefore, was the semi-centennial of the 
Convention's existence, and we met for the first 
time in the capital of the country, to celebrate our 
jubilee. Nearly all who were present at the original 
organization, have passed from the scenes of earth. 
Only one of them, Rev. John Thomas Sankey Park, 
then of Alabama, now of Mexia, Texas, was present 
at the recent meeting. Besides him, only two or three 
others, so far as is remembered, linger on these mortal 
shores. During the organization of this session, when 
nominations were being made for vice-presidents, as 
a fitting tribute to this honored and venerable brother, 
and as a most appropriate and graceful thing to be 
done, by a unanimous vote of the delegates he was 
chosen as one of the vice-presidents. 

This semi-centennial occasion was rendered the 
more enjoyable by the courtesy of the churches in 
Washington. To the average American no other city 
in the world compares with it. It bears the name of 
the most illustrious and honored man in the history of 
modern times, " First in peace, first in war, and first in 
the hearts of his countrymen." And it is a matter of 
ever-increasing pride and pleasure, to witness at the 
capital, and throughout America, and in every civil- 
ized country of the globe, the memorials of the great- 
ness and goodness and virtue of the Father of our 

5 



6 - INTRODUCTION 

Country. I,et us never lose an opportunity to honor 
our greatest chieftain, to transmit from age to age 
the name and fame of a man so unselfish and incor- 
ruptible in his patriotism ; so faithful, persistent, and 
successful in his advocacy and efforts for civil and 
religious freedom ; so true to all public and private 
trusts committed to his hands ; so reverent and devout 
in his Christian character ; and so sublime in his life 
and death. 

It was in this city, with all these objects of public 
and patriotic interests, and a thousand other attrac- 
tions, that by the kind and hospitable invitation of 
the brethren and people of Washington, we were 
permitted to hold the recent session of our Convention. 
From every quarter of our extended territory, the rep- 
resentatives from the churches, with several thousand 
visitors, came. The total number of delegates present 
as shown by the rolls, was eight hundred and ninety, 
besides some hundreds of ministers and laymen whose 
names were not enrolled. The President of the Board 
of Commissioners of the District of Columbia (answer- 
ing to the office of mayor of the ordinary city), the 
Hon. John W. Ross, visited the Convention at its 
opening, and greeting us with words of hospitable 
welcome, extended the freedom of the city to the 
delegates and visitors. The venerable and greatly 
beloved Dr. C. C. Meador, pastor of one of the Bap- 
tist churches of the city, gave us cordial welcome 
on the part of the Baptists and Christians of the 
community. The President of the United States 
tendered a reception, giving us the opportunity of 
meeting him and shaking his cordial and patriotic 
hand. The greeting we received, all around, was 
touchingly kind and cordial, and for it we cherish 
and express our profound and most grateful acknowl- 
edgments. God bless the brethren, people, and city 
of Washington ! 

There was not a visitor present who did not return 



INTRODUCTION 7 

to his home with higher inspirations of religion and 
dnty, and with a broader and deeper love of country. 
To their children and friends they will tell the story 
of what they saw and felt, and the influences for good 
thus set astir can scarcely be bounded as to place 
or time. 

But it is not alone in the South that these benign 
influences are to be felt and ripen into fruit. The 
real dispositions of Southern Christians to the cause 
of Christ at home and abroad, and the love they bear 
our common country, were displayed on the border 
line between the sections. Northern friends and 
brethren, who honored us with their presence, had 
opportunity to observe the principles of religion and 
patriotism by which Southern Christians are ani- 
mated, and to note that, no more in one section than 
in the other, is the sentiment dominant for " America 
for Christ," and for a united and happy country. 

Had any one ever before entertained doubts as to 
the policy of the organization of the Southern Bap- 
tist Convention, of its very great and triumphant 
progress, and of the importance and necessity for its 
continued existence in the indefinite future, if for no 
other reasons than of convenience, and for the mar- 
shaling of greater armies of workers for the better- 
ment of mankind and the redemption of the world, — 
he is a great disbeliever in facts if those doubts were 
not greatly shaken or dissolved at our recent session. 
Our struggles and triumphs, time and space will 
not here be taken to recount. Concerning these bet- 
ter information than can be given in this introduction 
may be found in the historical discourse of Dr. W. 
H. Whitsitt, delivered at the Convention and appear- 
ing in this volume. 

The general enthusiasm in the interests of the 
Boards of the Convention and our Theological Semi- 
nary, and for an educated ministry, is attested in the 
fact that the Southern Baptist Convention is now the 



8 INTRODUCTION 

largest representative assembly of Christian men that 
anywhere assembles. And still it grows, until the 
question of its free entertainment, in our largest cities 
even, has become one of embarrassment. Its ambi- 
tion and mission are to give the true gospel, as we 
understand it, to the perishing millions in our own 
country and other lands ; to promote peace and good 
will among all men, and intelligence and enlighten- 
ment, by the spoken word and the printed page, to 
all ranks and conditions ; to hasten, as far as may be, 
the millennial dawn. 

Sunday was a memorable day at our recent meet- 
ing. The pulpits of most of the Protestant churches 
were tendered to the Convention, with solicitations 
for our preachers to occupy them. Accordingly, the 
usual committee having this matter in charge 
made assignments for preaching by members of the 
Convention at these several places of worship. 

It was a happy suggestion to the mind of our 
brother, Rev. J. F. Love, pastor of the First Baptist 
Church at Suffolk, Va., to get together and publish 
in a volume some of these discourses, together with 
others, because contributed by leading ministers from 
all the States in the Convention. The volume will 
thus be of double interest, being in some measure 
memorial of the occasion and containing specimens 
of sermonic literature representative of the Southern 
pulpit. 

In behalf of brethren and friends, North and South, 
the writer begs to express his gratification at the ap- 
pearance of this volume, so unique and valuable, and 
to solicit for it the considerate attention of the brethren 
and Christians generally. 

Jonathan Haralson 

Montgomery, Ala., July 17, 1895. 



CONTENTS 



I. Civil Government and Religion, . . . . ii 

BY GEORGE B. EAGER, D. D., MONTGOMERY, ALA. 

II. A Retrospect, 30 

BY W. H. WHITSITT, D. D., LL.D., LOUISVILLE, KY. 

III. The Christian Hope, 46 

BY R. J. WILLINGHAM, D. D., RICHMOND, VA. 

IV. Ground of Judgment, 54 

BY B. H. CARROLL, D. D., WACO, TEX. 

V. Truth a Liberator, . . 67 

BY T. T. EATON, D. D., LL.D., LOUISVILLE, KY. 

VI. All, 79 

BY W. W. LANDRUM, D. D., RICHMOND, VA. 

VII. The Pre-eminent Name, 91 

BY J. B. HAWTHORNE, D. D., ATLANTA, GA. 

VIII. Self-Heroism, 104 

BY H. A. TUPPER, JR., D. D., BALTIMORE, MD. 

IX. The Divinity of Jesus Christ, 115 

BY G. A. NUNNALLY, D. D., MEMPHIS, TENN. 

X. Unanswered Prayers, 127 

BY A. G. MCMANAWAY, D. D., ARKADELPHIA, ARK. 

XI. Constraining Love, 133 

BY H. W. BATTLE, D. D., PETERSBURG, VA. 

XII. God's Unspeakable Gift, 140 

BY REV. MALCOLM MACGREGOR, JACKSONVILLE, FLA. 

XIII. The History of a Sin, 153 

BY REV. C. S. GARDNER, GREENVILLE, S. C. 

XIV. The Deceitfulness of Sin, 163 

BY R. T. VANN, D. D., SCOTLAND NECK, N. C. 

XV. Christ Crucified, 173 

BY J. C. HIDEN, D. D. f RICHMOND, VA. 

9 



IO CONTENTS 

XVI. Three Steps Up, 180 

BY J. D. GAMBRELL, D. D., LL.D., MACON, GA. 

XVII. Unbelieving Brethren, ' ... 191 

BY LANSING BURROWS, D. D., AUGUSTA, GA. 

XVIII. The Trial of Faith, 201 

BY Z. T. LEAVELL, D. D., CLINTON, MISSISSIPPI. 

XIX. The Resurrection of Christ, ..... 209 

BY M. B. WHARTON, D. D., NORFOLK, VA. 

XX. The First Resurrection, 220 

BY REV. J. L. WHITE, MACON, GA. 

XXI. The Effectual Cross, 231 

BY W. L. PICKARD, D. D., LOUISVILLE, KY. 

XXII. A Kingdom Built on a Cross, 246 

BY REV. E. Y. MULLINS, RICHMOND, VA. 

XXIII. Honor for Service, . . 255 

BY D. I. PURSER, D. D., NEW ORLEANS, LA. 

XXIV. Infidelity and Christianity Contrasted, . 266 

BY T. H. PRITCHARD, D. D., CHARLOTTE, N. C. 

XXV. A Man in Hell, .281 

BY REV. J. B. CRANFILL, WACO, TEX. 

XXVI. Godhood in Christ, 294 

BY J. J. TAYLOR, D. D., MOBILE, ALA. 

XXVII. Abandoned of the Lord, 305 

BY W. P. WALKER, D. D., HUNTINGTON, W. VA. 

XXVIII. The Sublimity of the Life of Faith, . .314 

BY REV. DAVID M. RAMSEY, CHARLESTON, S. C 

XXIX. The Faithfulness of God, 324 

BY J. P. GREENE, D. D., LL.D., LIBERTY, MO. 

XXX. The Cleansing Blood, ........ 333 

BY R. R. ACREE, D. D., KNOXVILLE, TENN. 

XXXI. The Meat and Mission of the Master, . . 340 

BY H. F. SPROLES, D. D., JACKSON, MISS. 

XXXII. The Crucified Christ, . 346 

BY C. A. STAKELY, D. D., WASHINGTON, D. C. 

XXXIII. Consecration and Enthusiasm, 356 

BY H. M. WHARTON, D. D., BALTIMORE, MD. 



George Boardman Eager, now pastor of the First Baptist 
Church, Montgomery, Ala., was born near Rodney, Miss., 
February 22, 1847. He is the second son of Rev. E. C. Eager 
and brother of Rev. John H. Eager, our missionary to Italy. 
He did service as a soldier lad in the Army of Northern Virginia. 
Entering Mississippi College after the war, he graduated in 1871, 
with the first honors of his class, and from the Southern Baptist 
Theological Seminary in the Elective Course in 1876. His first 
pastorate was in the famous old university town of Lexington, 
Va. , during which he took a post-graduate course at Washing- 
ton and Lee University. He has since served with conspicuous 
success the First Church, Knoxville, Tenn. ; St. Francis Street 
Church, Mobile, Ala. ; First Church, Danville, Va. ; Parker 
Memorial Church, Anniston, Ala. ; and his present important 
charge in the capital city of Alabama. The degree of D. d. 
has twice been conferred upon him, first by the University of 
Mississippi and afterward by Howard College, Alabama. On 
the 20th of February, 1879, he was married to Miss Annie 
Coorpender, the gifted daughter of Dr. William F. Coorpender. 




Geo B. Eager, D D. 



THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION 1 

BY GEO. B. EAGER, D. D. 

" Render, therefore, unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's ; and unto 
God the things that are God's." Matt. 22 : 21. 

I NEED not dwell upon the unique circumstances 
that called forth these memorable words. Two 
hostile camps had united their forces against the new 
Prophet, whose claims so threatened the theocracy, 
and were now conspiring to compass his ruin. Phari- 
sees and Herodians, zealots of Jewish orthodoxy and 
hated Jewish liberals, proud theocratic devotees and 
crafty Jewish royalists, had sunk their differences for 
the time in the ocean of a common hate. With dex- 
trous cunning they will tempt Jesus to utterance on 
the burning question of the Roman poll tax. But 
they do not enter upon their work openly. They use 
" smooth dissimulation, taught to grace a devil's pur- 
pose with an angel's face." They feign the guileless 
spirit of inquirers. " Master," they say in softest ac- 
cents of deference, " we know that thou art true, and 
teachest the way of God in truth, and neither carest 
thou for any man ; for thou regardest not the person 
of men ' ' — sublimest truths, but uttered in subtlest 
flattery. " Tell us, therefore, ... is it lawful to give 

1 Convention Sermon at the Jubilee Session, Southern Baptist Conven- 
tion, Washington, D. C, May, 1895. 

II 



12 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PUXPIT 

tribute unto Caesar or not?" Shall we, as God's 
people, owing allegiance to him as our King, pay 
taxes to Caesar ? Are these Herodians right who say 
that the tax is lawful and ought to be paid, or are we 
Pharisees right who claim that it is treason against 
Jehovah ? Ought we, or ought we not, to pay tribute 
to Caesar? 

A PERILOUS ALTERNATIVE. 

They must have waited in breathless silence and 
with gleaming eyes for the answer. He must say 
" yes " or " no," they thought. He cannot escape the 
artfully planned and perilous alternative. He will be 
thrown off his guard and fall into the trap. The 
Roman supremacy was certainly a usurpation. Je- 
hovah alone was their King. And this Prophet of a 
new, divine kingdom, surely he will hold his follow- 
ers free from fealty to this heathen power. 

Danger lurked on either hand — death by the mob, 
or death at the hands of Rome — here the fierce fury 
of the fanatical crowds that thronged the temple 
courts, there the cruel craftiness of Herod's bailiffs 
waiting to arrest him for treason against Caesar. 

But " the forked tongue and envenomed fang of the 
serpent" were not hidden from Jesus. They had 
come fawning, u Master, thou art true and good and 
brave "; he flashes upon them the lightning of one 
scorching word, u Hypocrites ! " u Why tempt ye 
me, ye hypocrites? Show me the tribute money!" 
And before the breathless crowd they hand him a 
Roman denarius. Holding it up — -on one side the 
haughty face of the Emperor Tiberius, and on the 
other the hated title, " Pontifex Maximus ' ' — he gives, 
as he was wont to do, an object lesson. " Whose is 
this image and superscription ? " They say unto him, 
" Caesar's." u Render, therefore, unto Caesar the 
things which are Caesar's." You have accepted this 
coin, and in so doing have answered your own ques- 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION 1 3 

tion; for, as your rabbis have taught, to accept the 
coinage of a king is to acknowledge his sway. But 
he will not leave the matter there — he adds the 
weightier and more far-reaching words, u And unto 
God the things that are God's." 

Is it a wonder that they stood before him amazed 
and silenced ? that the evangelist simply adds, " They 
marveled, and left him, and went their way n ? 

A FAR-REACHING ANSWER. 

The answer left nothing to be added. It met these 
treacherous questioners with a counter force of wis- 
dom which crushed their conspiracy at once. It did 
more. The question which they asked that day was 
not simply a question of the hour, but a question of 
the ages — a great question that then, for the first 
time, had struggled to the surface and begun to 
clamor for solution. And more and more the world 
has come to see that the answer given so instantly 
and with such military brevity, affords the final solu- 
tion of that question. It came, not only to give relief 
to Jewish minds, then perplexed with the problem of 
the relation of their civil government to heathen 
rule ; but it came, as students of history and govern- 
ment everywhere are coming more and more to ac- 
knowledge, to settle forever the "great problem of 
the relation of Church and State — the great generic 
question that lies back of so many of the grave, spe- 
cific problems of our day — the question of the true 
relation of civil government to religion. To the con- 
sideration, or rather the reconsideration, of that ques- 
tion, according to the demands of our times, I venture 
to invite you to-day. If any apology be needed for 
so doing, I would have you recognize it in the fact 
that as Baptists we are committed by our principles 
and our history to be content with nothing less than 
a right solution of this great question ; that we are 
reminded by this semi-centennial session of our Con- 

B 



14 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

vention, of what our forefathers did and suffered for 
the principle involved, and that we hold this session 
in the nation's capital where so often the representa- 
tives of a free people have been called to face the 
problem in the halls of legislation. 

A REVOLUTIONARY DOCTRINE. 

Detaching this saying of Jesus, then, from its im- 
mediate historical connections, and viewing it as an 
aphorism of infinite wisdom given for the guidance of 
men in all ages, let us inquire afresh into its teach- 
ing. 

Here is the clear recognition of man's twofold re- 
lation to government — human and divine. Here is an 
equally clear distinction between duties growing out 
of this twofold relation. Here is the implicit asser- 
tion of the separateness or independence of the two 
governments to which man stands related. And 
here, above all, is the unequivocal declaration of the 
duty and feasibility of absolute and uncompromising 
loyalty alike to Caesar and to God, to human govern- 
ment and divine. In such teaching, the Master went 
beyond all precedent. He defied the wisdom of the 
ages. It was as radically at variance with the teach- 
ing of Moses as with that of the philosophers. He- 
braism taught the 'doctrine of a perfect identification 
of the two governments and presented the sole in- 
stance known to history of a pure theocracy. Pagan- 
ism demanded at least an alliance between the two ; 
Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans considering the one 
as a sort of necessary adjunct to the other. In impe- 
rial Rome the emperor was also chief priest ; and in 
republican Athens it was as the guardian of religion 
that the State decreed the death of Socrates. But 
here was one preaching a doctrine as far removed 
from Hebraism as Hebraism was from paganism in 
its highest form. As every form of this alliance in 
paganism had fallen into utter degeneracy, so now 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION 15 

even the Jewish theocracy had grown corrupt, and 
was to be superseded. In the development of hu- 
manity the time had come when such union or iden- 
tification of human and divine rule could no longer 
serve the highest interest of God's kingdom, or the 
true progress of the race. The old order was doomed, 
and the new order must rise out of its ruins. Hence- 
forth human conduct was to be divided into two 
kinds : the conduct of the mind and the conduct of 
the body. Over the conduct of the body the State 
had rightful jurisdiction, but into the sacred domain 
of mind and conscience no State or legislature or 
officer of the law could ever rightfully penetrate, for 
in that realm God only could rule. These words 
of Jesus, then, cut into the very heart of things. 
Leopold von Ranke was not far wrong when he said 
it was the Master's most revolutionary utterance. It 
was right in the teeth of the most revered customs 
and institutions of the day, and utterly subversive of 
the great molding ideas and immemorial tendencies 
of antiquity. It was destined, as Richter says, to 
" Lift empires off their hinges and to turn the current 
of the ages out of its channel." It was the first 
streak of a new dawn ; the sunrise gun of a great new 
day ; the opening of the world's grandest era. 

THE PRINCIPLE INVOLVED VIOLATED. 

You need hardly to be reminded that not in the 
slightest degree, by either teaching or conduct did 
our Lord or his apostles contravene or compromise 
the great principle he that day enunciated. For 
three centuries, indeed, or down to the time of Con- 
stantine, all of his followers, individuals and churches, 
Jewish and Gentile, were true to it. The Roman 
State, of course, ignored and violated it. You know 
the vicissitudes through which the truth it stood for 
then passed, and how frequently and variously it has 
been violated since. The periods that witnessed the 



1 6 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

most signal of these violations have been pithily 
summed up by one of our own honored leaders in four 
apt descriptive words : persecution, protection, power, 
and policy. The one word that designates the first 
period is persecution. Christianity, in the eyes of 
the Roman empire, was an illicit religion. But the 
pruning knife only gave vigor to its growth. Ten 
converts arose for every martyr. At last the heathen 
world stood awestricken before the spectacle of such 
constancy and yielded, at least outwardly, to the 
claims of Christ. 

Then began the second period, from 325 to 1050, 
for which the word patronage is the fit designation. 
Cons tan tine established a royal protectorate over the 
church. As his imperial predecessors had persecuted 
Christians, so now he will persecute the heathen. It 
became, therefore, of worldly advantage to profess 
Christianity; and the civil power combined with a 
lax morality and the unscriptural innovation of infant 
baptism to sweep whole populations into the church. 
The kingdom of God came to be identified with the 
church, and the church with a colossal hierarchy. 
Ecclesiastical arrogance knew no bounds, and the 
Church, nourished in the bosom of the State, stung 
to death its would-be protector. 

A third period followed, from 1050 to 1250, in 
which the Church usurped the function of the State, 
and brought the world to her feet. The papacy arose 
to lord it over the bodies as well as the souls of men. 
Quietly appropriating to itself the prerogatives and 
traditions of pagan Rome, it wielded over the world 
an equally absolute and despotic power. 

Then followed the period of power. In Hilde- 
brand's claim to jurisdiction over all civil govern- 
ments, in Henry the IV. purchasing his crown by 
penitential prayers as he waited barefoot in the snow 
at Canossa, and especially in the wresting from the 
emperor of the right of the election of the popes, and 



CIVII, GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION 1 7 

the giving of it to the cardinals as the princes of the 
church, we may trace, as the historian already quoted 
shows, the successive steps of hierarchy toward abso- 
lute dominion, temporal as well as spiritual. 

Then followed a fourth period. As the first was 
the period of persecution, the second the period of 
patronage, the third the period of power, so the fourth 
has been as fitly called the period of policy. Papal 
assumption overleaped itself and provoked revolt. 
The sceptre departed from the church and she was 
forced to secure her ends by diplomacy. So from the 
year 1250 to 151 7 she became the slave of the tem- 
poral powers, and by most unworthy concessions in 
spiritual things purchased their help in the extermi- 
nation of her foes. 

" Thus had the church run through its four stages 
of persecution, patronage, power, and policy. It had 
apostatized from Christ, sold itself for worldly gain, 
become a false church instead of a true church." 
Where then in that dark time, it may be asked, were 
the true people of God ? And the answer comes, " Hid- 
ing in dens and caves of the earth, excommunicated, 
stretched upon the rack, burned at the stake. The 
Albigenses had been well-nigh exterminated ; John 
Huss and Jerome of Prague had suffered martyrdom ; 
and Savonarola's fiery appeals were preparing his 
doom." 

A NEW ERA DAWNS. 

But God fulfills himself in many ways. " The 
old order changeth, yielding place to the new." The 
year 1492 stands not only for the culmination of the 
old, but the rise of the new order of things. The 
practical demonstration had been complete that the 
alliance of Church and State was iniquitous and dis- 
astrous. "The turning point, the beginning of 
modern history," it has been well said, u is the dis- 
covery of America." 



1 8 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

As the Renaissance was " the new birth of the hu- 
man intellect," and the Reformation " the new birth 
of the human conscience," so what is known as the 
Revolution in England, France, and America was 
u the new birth of the human will" — the providen- 
tial unfettering of human life for its highest activities. 
In spite of all the darkness, the morning hour had 
come of that glad day which we now enjoy, and 
which, however it may be overcast, can never, we 
may be sure, set in human bondage and gloom. 

THE PRINCIPLE RECOGNIZED BY THE FOUNDERS OF 

OUR REPUBLIC. 

In the providence of God it was reserved for the 
United States of America to abolish forever, as far as 
the general government could do it, this unnatural 
alliance of Church and State, and to secure the most 
sacred of all rights and liberties to all her citizens — 
the liberty of religion and the free exercise thereof. 
Thus there was given to the world the first example 
in history of a great civil government deliberately 
adopting this principle of separation, and depriving 
itself forever of all legislative control over religion. 

The embodiment of that principle in the American 
Constitution and the actualizing of it in the ad- 
ministration of our government, forms, therefore, one 
of the great landmarks in human history. 

THE AMERICAN IDEA. 

The true American idea of the relation of civil 
government to religion, is not to be sought, of course, 
in old English legislation, or in colonial conceptions 
and institutions ; or even in certain questionable 
Supreme Court decisions ; but in that great instru- 
ment which is the organic law of the republic, the 
Magna Charta of our liberties, and the one authorita- 
tive exponent of the genius of our government. That 
instrument avowedly recognizes u the free exercise 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION 19 

and enjoyment of religion as an inherent, inviolable, 
and inalienable right of man," and secures full liberty 
of religious thought, speech, and action, " within the 
limits of the public peace and order." It exacts that 
"no religious test shall ever be required as a quali- 
fication to any office or public trust under the United 
States. " It makes as clear as human language can 
make it that the government does not adopt or es- 
tablish Christianity, or constitute itself in any formal 
sense a " Christian nation." The fathers of the re- 
public were God-fearing men. The foundations of 
the republic were laid in faith and prayer ; but the 
Constitution is avowedly and skillfully framed so as 
not to give the Christian religion any more than* any 
other the shadow of precedence or special privilege. 

CIVII, GOVERNMENT HAS NO RELIGIOUS FUNCTION. 

The American idea, then, as thus reflected in our 
organic law, is that civil government has no religious 
function. Not even Cavour's much-lauded doctrine 
of a free Church in a free State finds recognition or 
support in the American Constitution. 

It does not undertake to define a "church," in its 
idea, essence, or marks. It gives no slightest sign of 
a recognition of the existence or non-existence of 
churches or of a church. As far as the government 
is concerned, the citizen may associate with his fellows 
in worship or worship individually and privately ; 
yea, so far as the State knows or claims to have any 
right to know, he may be an atheist and absolutely 
hostile to religion ; but if he is obedient to civil laws, 
he is persona grata before the law. 

According to this idea, not only every Christian 
has rights, whether he be Roman Catholic or Protes- 
tant, Episcopalian or Baptist, Swedenborgian, Unita- 
rian, or Seventh-Day Adventist ; but the Jew also 
has rights, rights and immunities equal to and the 
same as those of the Christian. Yea, more, Jew and 



20 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

Mohammedan ; Buddhist, Theosophist, and Confu- 
cianist; Huxley, the agnostic; Frederic Harrison, the 
positivist; Felix Adler, the ethical culturist; Col. 
Ingersoll, the agitating skeptic ; Emerson, the tran- 
scendentalist, if they are citizens, stand upon exactly 
the same plane of right and privilege. Only let them 
be law-abiding men, and they may be this or that 
religiously, or utterly nondescript otherwise ; they are 
guaranteed freedom to enjoy their religion, or their 
non-religion, with "none to molest or to make them 
afraid." In other words, according to the American 
idea, the civil code is negative, not positive. The 
power of the State is power of police. Its function is 
justi'ce, not love. Its demand of men is duty to man, 
not duty to God, and even this duty is limited so as 
to be not the positive doing of good, but simply the 
abstaining from doing wrong unto our fellows. As 
regards religion, it has nothing to do but to secure 
liberty to the individual and protection to the or- 
ganized religious society or worshiping assembly. 

SOME SIGNIFICANT SIDELIGHTS. 

That this is the idea and spirit of the Constitution 
may be further shown in the history of the formation 
of that instrument ; in the known opinions and public 
utterances of the founders and first president of the re- 
public ; and in the interpretation of the constitutional 
amendments and provisions touching religion by the 
most competent and incorruptible of American jurists 
and statesmen. It is a matter of record that in March, 
1788, a meeting of Baptists was held in Virginia, at 
which were present representatives from New York, 
Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and other States, in 
which the question was taken up, whether the Consti- 
tution made sufficient provision for religious liberty. 
Upon consultation with Mr. Madison, they determined 
to address General Washington, and in August, 1789, 
they did so in these words : 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION 21 

4 1 When the Constitution first made its appearance 
in Virginia, we had unusual strugglings of mind, 
fearing that the liberty of conscience (dearer to us 
than property and life) was not sufficiently secured. 
Perhaps our jealousies were heightened on account of 
the usage we received in Virginia under the British 
Government, when mobs, bonds, fines, and prisons 
were our frequent repast." 

The great first president of the republic, though 
trained in an Established church, and at a time too, 
when men had not ceased to think that they who ad- 
ministered flogging, imprisonment, and even direr 
persecutions for religion's sake, were verily doing 
God's service, responded, setting forth the spirit of 
the Constitution in words which, like those of the 
Constitution itself, have been the wonder and the ad- 
miration of statesmen, historians, and lovers of liberty 
the world over : 

"If I could have entertained the slightest ap- 
prehension that the Constitution framed in the con- 
vention where I had the honor to preside might pos- 
sibly endanger the religious rights of any ecclesi- 
astical society, certainly I would never have placed 
my signature to it ; and if I could now conceive that 
the general government might ever be so administered 
as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg 
you will be persuaded that no one would be more 
jealous than myself to establish effectual barriers 
against the horrors of spiritual tyranny and every spe- 
cies of religious persecution. As you doubtless re- 
member, I have often expressed my sentiments, that 
every man, conducting himself as a good citizen and 
being accountable to God alone for his religious 
opinions, ought to be protected in worshiping the 
Deity according to the dictates of his own con- 
science." 

Other dissenting bodies were also active in demand- 
ing explicit guarantees against any semblance or pos- 



22 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

sibility of the establishment of a religion in the 
young republic ; and it was in consequence of such 
demands that the first Congress, under the leadership 
of James Madison, proposed to the States the im- 
mortal First Amendment, which so explicitly and un- 
mistakably provides that " Congress shall make no 
law respecting an establishment of religion, or pro- 
hibiting the free exercise thereof." 

But let us note the idea, strictly speaking, is not 
American. It was no invention of our people or our 
times. Traced to its source it is found to be neither 
English nor French nor American nor even modern, 
but Christian. Its author is none other than He who 
spake these words, " Render unto Caesar the things 
which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are 
God's, " and who taught that great, new doctrine of 
the kingdom of God, " My kingdom is not of this 
world." 

THE LEAVEN AT WORK IN OTHER LANDS. 

The influence exerted by the United States in this 
respect upon other countries where the old order sur- 
vives, has been incalculable. The forces and ideas 
that have been dominant here have been powerfully 
operative elswhere, especially in European lands. A 
new day has dawned in the British empire. The 
Protestant church of Ireland has been set free from 
the control of the legislature. Scotland is asking for 
the application of the same principle of religious 
equality. Thirty-one out of thirty-four represent- 
atives of the Welsh people are charged to seek the 
termination of the connection that binds the Epis- 
copal Church in Wales to the British Parliament, and 
with this problem the House of Commons is now 
wrestling. Then the separation of Church and State 
is already accomplished in the habitual thought of 
the English people. Men are behaving on every 
hand " as though the formal deed of separation were 



CIVII. GOVERNMENT AND REUGION 23 

already drawn and were only waiting for the signa- 
tures of the respective parties therto. M " In theory," 
says Dean Stubbs, " Church and State were intended 
to grow together, but in practice the State has out- 
grown the Church, and left it, as it were, centuries 
behind." "Not by any law, expressed or implied, 
but by the assumption of the clerical party," says 
Canon Barnett, " the nation has become separate from 
the church." Episcopalians have come themselves to 
recognize the gradual detachment of the Anglican 
Church from the life of the people, and an elect few, 
among whom the new Bishop of Hereford takes 
primary rank, "are prepared, if not to welcome, yet 
unfearingly to allow, the total severance of the bond 
which has bound together for so many centuries the 
Anglican Church and the Crown." "Every year," 
says Dr. John Clifford, "adds to the number of 
Churchmen in England, as well as in Wales, who 
would rejoice in the Act of Separation, if only the re- 
sources of which the church is at present possessed 
were not in any way diminished." 

As to English Nonconformists, they cling, not 
with less but with more tenacity than their fathers 
did, to the fundamental principle that any arrange- 
ment by which Parliament controls and administers 
the inward life and actions of societies of Christians, 
is contrary to the express teaching of the Lord Jesus, 
an invasion of his rights as the Sole Ruler and King 
of his people, and is historically proved to be fraught 
with great mischief to the disciples of Christ, to the 
progress of religion, and to the welfare of the people 
at large. 

THE WHOLE QUESTION ENTERING UPON ITS FINAL 

PHASE. 

These are but a few of many indications, says Dr. 
Clifford, that the whole question of the organization 
of the State for the promotion of religion has entered 



24 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

upon another, and probably its final, phase. It is no 
longer possible to ignore the new thought of men 
concerning the State and religion, the kingdom of 
God and the churches, now working with silent but 
surprising energy the world over. The divine right 
of any church to " establishment " and " endowment," 
has come to be recognized as but the survival of the 
" divine right' ' of kings to rule without the consent 
of the people, "a right introduced among English- 
speaking people only by a distinct violation of the 
historical principles of English development. " New 
factors indeed, of special significance, have found 
their way into the problem within the last fifty years. 
New conceptions of the State and of religion, of 
Christianity and of the churches and of their relation 
to one another, have come into play, and, as this great 
Englishman has said, are actually remaking our 
world. 

There is growing up too, a fresh interpretation of 
religion, which is one of the formative forces of 
modern life. It is still recognized, if possible more 
clearly than ever, as the basis of morality, and as in- 
dispensable for the regulation of conduct and the 
building up of character ; but men have come to see 
that ecclesiasticism is not of the essence of religion, 
nor is sacerdotalism, nor dogmatism, nor intellectual 
orthodoxy, nor even ritual observance. Religion is 
not a matter of rules and forms, but of spirit and 
truth ; not a matter of doctrines and symbols merely, 
but of habits of mind toward men and toward God. 

DISESTABLISHMENT CEASES TO BE DREADED. 

Even English churchmen who a quarter of a cen- 
tury ago looked upon disestablishment as a dreaded 
calamity involving the fall of the " bulwark of Prot- 
estantism," are delivered from that fear now, for they 
see that the control of Parliament brings no advan- 
tage to Protestantism, while self-control, as in the 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION 25 

Colonies, in Ireland, and in the United Stales, would 
be attended with a quickened sense of responsibility 
on the part of the laity, a heightened appreciation of 
" Protestant principles," and a greater prosperity in 
all departments of the church's work. They have 
come to realize, as Lord Rosebery says, that " the 
essence of the church is spiritual ; the inspiration, 
the traditions, the gracious message, the divine mis- 
sion, the faith that guides us through the mystery of 
life to the mystery of death — all these were produced 
in poverty, in the cottage of a carpenter, and flour- 
ished under persecution ; and that nothing can be so 
remote from their essence or their spirit as wealth, or 
power, or dignity in this world ; " in short, that the 
supreme forces of Christianity are altogether beyond 
the touch of parliaments or senates. Moreover, they 
have come to feel profoundly that the church is no 
longer even approximately coextensive with the 
nation, and that, as Canon Moberly says, for the nation 
to continue to profess churchmanship nationally, 
involves u a necessary and considerable unreality in 
the profession." u The nation," he says, . " is too 
much divided to be able longer to retain any single 
corporate religion" ; therefore, " the maintenance of 
official profession involves us, from time to time, in 
scenes of painful religious unreality." Even Canon 
Liddon seemed to foresee the inevitable when in one 
of his great sermons he gave warning in these sig- 
nificant words : " Churches are disestablished and 
disendowed to the eye of sense through the action of 
political parties ; to the eye of faith by His interfer- 
ence who ordereth all things both in heaven and in 
earth, and who rules at this moment on the same 
principles as those which of old led him to cleanse 
his Father's temple in Jerusalem." 

REACTIONARY INFLUENCES IN AMERICA. 

Coming back to our land, the integrity and full 



26 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

extension of this great idea have been threatened at 
times all along the years by some persistent relics of 
the old order which survive in certain national cus- 
toms, State constitutions, and popular ecclesiastical 
traditions. While the most marvelous progress has 
been making in the thought of other peoples in the 
direction of disestablishment, certain reactionary 
influences have been perceptible in the United States. 
The last few years, indeed, have witnessed a remark- 
able revival of the antique ideas and tendencies which 
it was the effort of our forefathers to throw off and 
leave behind ; and as a result, the full embodiment 
and perpetuity of the great principles that constitute 
the most distinguishing characteristic of our national 
law and life seem to be threatened anew. 

At a time when the British people are abandoning 
the idea that their religion consists in subscription to 
Articles of Faith, or in any formal definition of God 
or theories of the inspiration of the Bible, not a few 
over-zealous Americans are found making the most 
persistent and concerted efforts to secure new amend- 
ments to the Constitution by which the existence of 
God, the divinity of Christ, and the inspiration of the 
Scriptures shall be authoritatively recognized. When 
canons of the English church are pronouncing the 
maintenance of a national profession of religion in 
England " a necessary and considerable unreality,' ' 
ministers of the gospel in free America are found 
laboring most strenuously with the avowed object of 
bringing our general government to a legal profession 
of religion — of Christianizing the Constitution ! It 
becomes more and more apparent, of course, to intel- 
ligent and thoughtful people, that the proposition is 
utterly repugnant to our national history and princi- 
ples, as well as to Christianity itself. The Constitu- 
tion was not designed as u a Confession of Faith," 
but as u a compact between States, defining the 
powers and limitations of the general government, so 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION 27 

as to establish and maintain a true and rightful 
union.' ' 

Akin to this is the effort that has been even more 
persistently made to secure a constitutional amend- 
ment making the religious use of the Bible and the 
teaching of the distinctive truths of Christianity 
obligatory in the public schools. " Let the devo- 
tional exercises be reduced to a minimum if neces- 
sary — to the reading of the Bible, the recital of the 
Lord's Prayer, and the singing of a hymn," men are 
found contending, " and let just the elementary truths 
of religion be taught — truths so simple and broad 
that none can reasonably object to them, and that is 
all that we ask." Good men, able ministers of the 
gospel, even Baptists of high standing, are found 
visiting committee rooms and halls of legislation, 
urged on by a zeal which is not according to knowl- 
edge, seemingly utterly oblivious of the truth that 
lies at the foundation of our government, that it is 
not the function of the State to conduct worship or 
to teach religion. 

The principle is as really violated by a little wor- 
ship as by the most elaborate — by the most elemen- 
tary religious teaching as by the most developed theo- 
logical instruction. Any such legislative enactment 
as is asked for would virtually give over the whole 
contention. It would be the beginning of a tendency ; 
a first step backward toward the abandoned alliance 
of the past ; the entrance of the camel's nose into the 
tent of our national life ; and who then could secure 
us against the ultimate coming in of the whole 
dreaded body of religious legislation ? 

There is a sense, indeed, in which it is in vain to 
talk of drawing a line between the religious and the 
secular ; for no such line really exists. Religion is 
the spirit in which all secular life should be carried 
on. Even the teaching and training of our public 
schools should be vitalized with the essential spirit of 



28 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

Christianity. It is the right and duty of the State 
to prepare its citizens for citizenship, and this cer- 
tainly involves moral training inspired by the spirit 
of reverence and love. Even a Huxley contends that 
our boys and girls are to be prepared not only for the 
discharge of domestic duties, but for duties as mem- 
bers of a social and political organization of great 
complexity ; and to this end it is needful i ' that their 
affections should be trained, so as to love with all 
their hearts that conduct which tends to the attain- 
ment of the highest good for themselves and their 
fellow-men, and to hate with all their heart that 
opposite course of action which is fraught with evil." 
But this is far from granting the right of that worst 
form of paternalism, the paternalism of government 
that usurps the place of the home and the church 
in the religious training of the young. It does not 
require that we yield the point that the State as such, 
has no religious function. 

The principle is evidently and palpably violated, 
again, by any and all appropriations of money from 
the treasury of the State or of the United States for 
religious purposes. It is this violation of the princi- 
ple that has thrown us into such confusion over the 
school question. But we are coining to see, not only 
the inequalities, but the inherent unrighteousness, of 
the division of our public school funds to the support 
of any form of sectarian, or parochial schools, or 
charitable institutions. All government appointments 
or appropriations for religious purposes, or on religious 
grounds, are not only open to the charge of govern- 
mental favoritism for one church or denomination 
over another, but are in utter violation of the princi- 
ple we are contending for, and of the spirit of our 
laws and institutions. 

CONCLUDING APPEAR. 

Bartholdi's statue, in the harbor of our great 



CIVIL GOVERNMENT AND RELIGION 29 

metropolis, has more significance, as has been finely 
suggested, as applicable to soul liberty than to per- 
sonal or civil freedom. That, in its glorious ampli- 
tude, is America's greatest contribution to the science 
of politics and to the art of government. 

God forbid that her own citizens, Christian citizens, 
descendants of forefathers who counted not their lives 
dear unto themselves that they might secure the 
recognition and perpetuity of this great principle in 
our national law and life, in misguided zeal should do 
aught to dim the splendor of that light, or to neutral- 
ize its far-reaching influence ! 



II 

A RETROSPECT 1 

BY W. H. WHITSITT, D. D., LL.D. 

" Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." Exod. 
14 : 15. 

THE earliest general organization among American 
Baptists was the " General Missionary Conven- 
tion of the Baptist Denomination in the United States 
of America for Foreign Missions," organized by thirty- 
three delegates, representing eleven States, in the city 
of Philadelphia, on the eighteenth day of May, 1814. 
Baptist people throughout the entire country co-op- 
erated with this body for a period of thirty years. 

In 1845 a division occurred between the Baptists of 
the North and those of the South. The Southern 
Baptist Convention was organized at Augusta, Georgia, 
on Thursday, the eighth day of May, of that year. 
Just fifty years have elapsed since that important 
event, and we have met in the capital of our country 
to celebrate our jubilee. 

The separation that fifty years ago took place be- 
tween Northern and Southern Baptists was happily 
circumscribed in extent. It related exclusively to 
the missionary operations which had hitherto been 
conducted in common. The fathers of that day were 
solicitous that this point should be clearly understood, 
and that the extent of the disunion should not be ex- 
aggerated. The official address sent forth by the 
Convention declared that " Northern and Southern 

1 Historical discourse on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Southern Bap- 
tist Convention. 

30 




W. H. Whitsitt, D. D., LL. D. 



William Heth Whitsitt was born in Nashville, Tenn., 
November 25, 1841. When he was eleven years of age his 
father died, leaving him to the care and training of his mother, 
from whom he received the rudiments of an education. In 
1857 he entered Union University and graduated with distinc- 
tion. He then spent one year at the University of Virginia 
studying Latin, Greek, mathematics, and moral philosophy, and 
afterward took a two years' course at the Southern Baptist Theo- 
logical Seminary. The two following years were spent in study 
at the universities of Leipzig and Berlin, Germany. 

Returning to America in 1871 he entered the pastorate at 
Albany, Ga., from which he was called in 1872 to a profes- 
sorship in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, which he 
held until his election in May, 1895, to succeed Dr. John A. 
Broadus in the presidency of that institution. That he should 
be chosen by men who knew them both to succeed such a man 
is a sufficient testimony to his character, his learning, and his 
piety to render unnecessary any comment here. 



A RETROSPECT 3 1 

Baptists are still brethren. They differ in no article of 
the faith. They are guided by the same principles 
of gospel order. . . We do not regard the rupture as 
extending to foundation principles, nor can we think 
that the great body of our Northern brethren will so 
regard it." 

Though the division related to nothing else than 
foreign and domestic missions, it was nevertheless 
unavoidable. One of our statesmen declared that the 
issues then pending between the North and the South 
constituted u an irrepressible conflict." History has 
justified the correctness of that conclusion. The 
best and wisest men in the North consented to a 
division because they regarded it as being, under the 
circumstances, a necessary evil ; the wisest and best 
men in the South accepted the division as being im- 
peratively required by the situation. 

In many respects the separation has also been of 
signal advantage. It was of advantage to our North- 
ern brethren, because it promoted their peace and 
union. They could never have been rightly at har- 
mony among themselves so long as their Southern 
brethren remained in the same organization. It was 
of advantage to Southern Baptists in different direc- 
tions, but especially because it developed their mis- 
sionary enterprise and activity. To illustrate what is 
here affirmed, certain statistics may be cited with re- 
lation to the American Baptist Home Mission Society, 
which was the organ through which operations in do- 
mestic missions were prosecuted by the Baptists of the 
whole country from 1832 to 1845. During that period 
of thirteen years the entire sum of contributions from 
the Southern States was thirty-eight thousand six 
hundred and fifty-six dollars and forty cents. During 
a like period under the Southern Baptist Convention, 
the contributions for domestic and Indian missions 
amounted to two hundred and sixty-six thousand 
three hundred and fifty-six dollars and thirteen cents. 



32 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

This gratifying advance was worth all the pain and 
sacrifice that we had to endure in breaking up the re- 
lations that had hitherto subsisted with our Northern 
brethren. 

It is also a matter of sincere rejoicing that the sepa- 
ration here described was for the most part a peace- 
able one. Friction was unavoidable, and it is not de- 
nied that more or less of it was developed. But pub- 
lic negotiations on either side were marked by the dig- 
nity and moderation that become Christian brethren. 
That excellent result was due, in large measure, to 
the singularly elevated character and devout piety of 
the contending parties. Moreover, we cannot be too 
grateful that there were no questions regarding the 
division of a common property to excite the thoughts 
of men to undue asperity. It is likewise a special 
mercy of Providence that in all the fifty years of our 
history there have been no very important conflicts 
touching the boundaries that should exist between 
Northern and Southern Baptists. The evils of dis- 
union would have been greatly enhanced if we had 
been forced to waste our resources and opportunities 
in building rival houses of worship for Northern and 
Southern Baptist churches in all the cities, and even 
towns and villages, adjacent to the border. Let us 
recognize our exceedingly fortunate situation and al- 
ways do what lies in our power to keep the peace. 

The half-century of our Convention's history may 
be divided into three separate periods, each of which 
has a well-defined character of its own. 

i. The first of these is the period in which slavery 
still prevailed, extending from 1845 to J 865. It is 
not easy correctly to estimate the number of Baptist 
people within our bounds at the opening of this 
period. Dr. J. I,. Burrows, in his excellent " Ameri- 
can Baptist Register," estimates that we had four 
hundred and two thousand and sixty-eight members 
in our Southern churches in the year 1852. Possibly 



A RETROSPECT 33 

there were not more than three hundred and fifty 
thousand in the year 1845. Of these at least one 
hundred thousand were slaves, who had few inde- 
pendent churches of their own, but almost uniformly 
belonged to the organizations of their masters. Sub- 
tracting these from the total, we shall have two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand as the approximate number 
of white Baptists in 1845. 

The progress and development of our constituents 
during the greater portion of this period were rapid 
and steady. It is entertaining to consider how differ- 
ent was the tone that was observed in the year 1846 
from that which prevailed in the year 1859. ^he ex " 
cellent corresponding secretary of the Foreign Mis- 
sion Board, Dr. James B. Taylor, gravely reminded 
the Convention that "the population of the South is 
comparatively small. Our churches are not of easy 
access, their members being often scattered over many 
miles of territory. . . Our country is not filled up 
with towns and villages, rendering it convenient to 
collect the masses together, but our brethren, being 
principally agriculturists, must be visited upon their 
farms or called together at their country places of 
worship." In the year 1859, on the contrary, we 
had begun to speak with a degree of exultation con- 
cerning the ample resources of our Southern Baptist 
churches, and to rejoice that God had blessed so many 
of our people with large financial means. A brief in- 
dication of the advance of the cause will appear in 
the fact that in 1847 the contributions to the Domes- 
tic Mission Board were nine thousand five hundred 
and ninety- four dollars and sixty cents, while in 1859 
the same Board received from the churches almost 
three times as much, namely, twenty-eight thousand 
four hundred and eighty-seven dollars and ninety-six 
cents. In 1846 there was contributed throughout the 
Southern States eleven thousand seven hundred and 
thirty-five dollars and twenty-two cents to the For- 



34 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

eign Mission Board, while thirty-nine thousand eight 
hundred and twenty-four dollars and thirty-seven 
cents was received in 1859. ^ * s n °t affirmed that 
the number of Southern Baptists had increased three- 
fold, in keeping with their contributions, though it 
must be conceded that their progress in this respect 
also had been highly gratifying. 

The constitution adopted by our Convention at its 
opening session in 1845 is, in some respects, a highly 
interesting document, and will repay attentive study. 
" The General Missionary Convention of the Baptist 
Denomination in the United States of America for 
Foreign Missions, " with which we had co-operated 
since the year 1814, was in the beginning merely a 
society for the promotion of foreign missions. As 
such, it had only one Executive Board. At a later 
period the interests of home missions and of Colum- 
bian College were likewise imposed upon the same 
organization. Here was a single Board with three 
separate departments of labor. This arrangement 
worked very ill, and in 1826 the day of disaster ap- 
peared. In consequence of that disaster, the General 
Missionary Convention returned to its original func- 
tion, and devoted itself to the prosecution of foreign 
missions exclusively. The work of home missions 
was temporarily interrupted, while Columbian Col- 
lege was left to its own exertions. The result of 
these changes was that in the Northern part of our 
country every separate and independent enterprise 
was henceforth to be prosecuted by a separate and 
independent society. The General Missionary Con- 
vention, now the Missionary Union, took charge of 
the work of foreign missions ; the American Baptist 
Home Mission Society devoted itself to domestic mis- 
sions, and the American Baptist Publication Society 
to the publication interests. 

When the fathers of our Convention met together 
to consult about its constitution, they decided to go 



A RETROSPECT 35 

back beyond the convulsions of the year 1826, and 
as far as possible to adopt the principles and methods 
which had prevailed from the beginning in the Gen- 
eral Missionary Convention. One change, however, 
was dictated by prudence and by an accurate knowl- 
edge of the facts. Instead of establishing a South- 
ern Baptist Convention with a single Board, which 
should have charge of several different departments 
of denominational exertion, it was decided to estab- 
lish two co-ordinate Boards, each of which should be 
dependent upon the body that had originated them. 
These co-ordinate Boards, one for foreign and the 
other for domestic missions, were but the forerunners 
of other interests. In 1851 the Bible Board was es- 
tablished at Nashville, Tennessee. In 1859 the Theo- 
logical Seminary, with a certain relation of depend- 
ence upon the Convention, was set in operation at 
Greenville, South Carolina. In 1863 a Sunday-school 
Board was also established at Greenville. In 1888 the 
Woman's Missionary Union was recognized and as- 
signed to a home in Baltimore. In 1891 another 
Sunday-school Board was created and sent to Nash- 
ville ; and in 1893 the Southern Baptist Educational 
Conference began its existence in close touch with 
the Convention. 

The relations of these different bodies to the cen- 
tral organization may not always be uniform ; and 
yet they are each one in its own way dependent on 
the Convention. Historical development and the 
training that has been received by our people for fifty 
years require that every religious enterprise carried 
on among white Baptists within the limits of the 
Southern Baptist Convention shall be in one or other 
form auxiliary to the Convention. Whatever may be 
out of touch, and especially out of harmony, with 
this body, is liable to meet with more or less decided 
opposition, and to occasion more or less of conflict. 

The earliest period of our history as a religious or- 



36 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

ganization was closed amid the tremendous struggle 
and desolations of the war between the States. The 
Bible Board at Nashville passed away and was de- 
cently interred during this troublous season. The 
Board of Foreign Missions was greatly crippled in its 
operations, but disaster was averted by the devotion 
and sacrifices of some of the missionaries and of ex- 
cellent brethren in Maryland and Kentucky, to whom 
we must always be under obligations. The Domestic 
Mission Board devoted its attention chiefly to the sol- 
diers in the Southern armies, where it was useful and 
successful. 

II. PERIOD OF POVERTY AND PERU. — 1865-1879 

It would be difficult to overestimate the extent of the 
poverty and distress that prevailed in the Southern 
country immediately after the war. Desolation 
reigned in every quarter. Almost everything was 
destroyed except the courage of the people. It 
goes without saying that our churches suffered along 
with other interests. The apprehensions of the people 
regarding the commonest necessities were so constant 
and so keen that there was often little time or thought 
for any other concern. Many houses of worship had 
been dismantled through military occupation or by 
the violence of conflict, and it was often a question 
whether it would ever again be possible to restore 
them to their original condition. 

In the midst of these cares • and sorrows our es- 
teemed colored brethren retired from our churches 
almost to a man. The parting, though mutually 
painful, was accompanied by mutual good wishes. 
But it could not be prevented, and we were com- 
pelled to accept the inevitable. 

Not long after the war came the trials and repres- 
sion of the era of reconstruction. Ten years of con- 
fusion were entailed by this policy ; a period in which 
our privations and anxieties were scarcely inferior to 



A RETROSPECT 37 

those we had endured during the four years of armed 
conflict. 

To this aggregation of evils was added the remark- 
able financial panic that overtook the country in the 
autumn of 1873, whose results were keenly felt almost 
by every inhabitant of our section for six or seven 
years. The experience of those long days of torture 
and humiliation are still remembered and will haunt 
many people as an evil dream as long as they live in 
the world. 

If the affairs of the Convention were in a sorry 
plight, this was nothing more than might justly be 
said of every other business enterprise. An attempt 
was made at Russellville, in 1866, to revive the Bible 
Board, and to establish its home at Louisville ; but 
the Board was too dead for resurrection. If the reso- 
lution had not been faithfully embalmed in the min- 
utes, it would not be known that any human being 
had been bold enough to recall the defunct institution. 

The Sunday-school Board existed for ten short 
years, and in 1873 was dissolved at Mobile, its effects 
and its functions being committed to the care of the 
Domestic Mission Board. Unfortunately, however, 
the situation of the latter Board was by no means 
assured. As early as 1871, there were suggestions of 
merging it into the Board of Foreign Missions. The 
specious plea was urged that it would be more econo- 
mical if we returned to the identical platform which 
proved so unfortunate for the General Missionary 
Convention and sustained only a single Board, which 
should prosecute the general work of home as well as 
foreign missions. These dangerous intimations were 
defeated, but the Board was not thereby restored to 
its former vigor. Centrifugal forces were everywhere 
at work. Several of the States had organized mission 
Boards to care for their own territory, and honorable 
State Conventions deliberately passed resolutions by 
which the Domestic Mission Board should be excluded 



38 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

from their boundaries. These proposed to take charge 
of the entire work of home missions, allowing the 
Convention to make no collections and to extend no 
assistance in any place where their authority was 
respected. 

Still other States had entered upon terms of co- 
operation with rival organizations situated in other 
sections of the country. That was notably true of 
the district west of the Mississippi River, which, by 
one process or another, had all been lost to the 
Domestic Mission Board. It had no agent, and was 
rendering no assistance in any portion of that wide 
territory. This process of. disintegration was not 
confined to the trans-Mississippi department. In 
some of the States on the eastern side of the river 
brethren had turned away from the Domestic Board 
and were working in connection with rival societies. 
The outlook was as gloomy as it well could be. 

In addition to the above, the seminary was all the 
while in grave peril. It encountered three crises of 
cardinal importance : one in the year 1869, at Macon ; 
another in 1874, at Jefferson, Texas ; and a third in 
1879, at Atlanta, Georgia. They must have been 
comparatively few who had courage enough in those 
evil days to conceive any firm faith in the future of 
the institution. 

Under all these circumstances it was nothing more 
than one might expect, that questions concerning the 
life or death of the Convention should in due time be 
raised. That issue was brought forward and dis- 
cussed at Atlanta, Georgia, during the session of the 
Convention in 1879. Here was indeed a " battle of 
the giants. " No such momentous controversy has 
been brought before us in the entire course of our 
history. On the afternoon of the first day an impres- 
sive preamble and a couple of resolutions were pro- 
posed. 

This document was expressed in diplomatic terms, 



A RETROSPECT 39 

and yet it was generally understood that it related 
mainly to the question of "preserving our separate 
organization." As in the case of all issues of first- 
class importance, the business was referred to a com- 
mittee composed of one from each State. When it 
came up for discussion on the morning of Saturday, 
May 10, 1879, after an address by the chairman, it was 
moved by John A. Broadus, of Kentucky, to strike 
out the two resolutions, and on that proposition a de- 
bate was held which lasted throughout the day. 
Shortly before adjournment in the afternoon, the mo- 
tion of Dr. Broadus was carried, and an amended 
resolution was substituted in the following terms : 
"The committee to whom were referred the resolu- 
tions on co-operation with our Northern brethren, 
have had the same under consideration, and instruct 
me to report the following resolution : 

" Resolved, That five brethren be appointed by this 
Convention to bear to our Baptist brethren of the 
Northern States, at their approaching anniversaries, 
expressions of our fraternal regard, and assurances 
that while firmly holding to the wisdom and policy of 
preserving our separate organizations, we are ready, 
as in the past, to co-operate cordially with them in 
promoting the cause of Christ in our own and foreign 
lands." 

In this manner an issue was quietly closed which 
had threatened us with the most serious consequences, 
and there has never been a moment since the year 
1879 when it was even remotely possible for such a 
question to be again discussed before the Convention. 

The forces that conspired together to defend the 
life of the Convention in that dark and trying ordeal 
deserve respectful mention. The theological sem- 
inary, in its deep poverty and embarrassment, found 
in the Convention an indispensable support. It re- 
quired an organization to which it could declare its 
sorrows year by year, and from which it could obtain 



40 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

much needed assistance. On these grounds, as well 
as many others, the seminary has always vigorously 
advocated the continued maintenance of the "Con- 
vention. 

But the sturdiest prop of an institution that was 
almost ready to fall was the Board of Foreign Missions. 
It had no rivals in prosecuting the foreign mission 
work of Southern Baptists. On either side of the 
Mississippi all States and Territories were open to it ; 
its agents were kindly welcomed everywhere. By 
consequence it was in its power to exhibit a degree of 
prosperity that was unusual for that time, and to 
present reports that were always gratifying and often 
surprising. Friends of the Convention could urge 
with entire propriety that there was no serious call to 
surrender as long as this creditable work remained 
intact. 

At the close of our first fifty years of success and 
trial it is becoming to bestow a deserved meed of ac- 
knowledgment and gratitude upon the sturdy Board 
of Foreign Missions, and upon its noble correspond- 
ing secretary, Dr. H. A. Tupper, for the splendid 
services it was given them to render us. They 
brought succor and strength and deliverance when 
other helpers all failed. Without their assistance we 
should not have been able to celebrate our jubilee 
to-day. 

III. PERIOD OF PROSPERITY — 1879-1895. 

Almost every interest connected with the southern 
section of our country began to display marked energy 
after the year 1879. Oxir Convention took a new 
lease of existence, and after long years of weakness 
experienced afresh the joys of life. 

The theological seminary, which it was appre- 
hended might be suspended forever at the close of its 
sessions in May, 1880, found a deliverer in the person 
of Governor Joseph E. Brown, of Georgia. In March, 



A RETROSPECT 41 

1880, he bestowed upon it a gift of fifty thousand 
dollars, coupled with the condition that within a 
specified period the amount should be raised to two 
hundred thousand dollars, and this kept forever 
sacred as an endowment fund. Here was the begin- 
ning of progress. The fund of two hundred thousand 
dollars was duly completed, and proved to be only 
the foundation upon which in the past sixteen years 
a large superstructure has been reared. Our seminary 
is one of the most important Baptist institutions of 
theological learning in the country, or in the world. 
A certain proportion of the means that constitute this 
large plant was bestowed by brethren from the North- 
ern States, and it is a sincere pleasure to recognize 
their generosity and give them thanks. But we have 
not waited for other people. We have remembered 
the duty of helping ourselves. The great bulk of the 
property belonging to the theological seminary must 
be considered as a monument of the rising prosperity 
of the Southern States and of the increasing liberality 
of Southern Baptists. 

The receipts of the Foreign Mission Board began to 
grow apace with the year 1880. In the thirty-four 
years between 1845 an ^ 1879 this Board received from 
all sources, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand 
three hundred and seventy-seven dollars and twenty- 
three cents. In the sixteen years that have elapsed 
since that period it has received one million four hun- 
dred and eleven thousand five hundred and twenty- 
nine dollars and fourteen cents. Here is no time to 
enter into minute details, but we cannot omit to con- 
gratulate ourselves upon the brilliant advances that 
have been recorded in foreign missions. The fields 
which up to 1879 had been cultivated in Africa, 
China, and Italy have been greatly reinforced and 
improved, while other fields have been opened and 
successfully cultivated in lands that were not then 
occupied by us. Our missions may not be all that 



42 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

we could desire, but we are heartily proud of them, 
and are willing for them to be compared with the 
work performed by other denominations. 

The Home Mission Board, which had so long been 
in an enfeebled condition, began to receive new favor 
after 1879. ^ n the Y ear iS&Z it was reconstructed at 
Greenville, South Carolina, and, under Dr. I. T. 
Tichenor, started upon a career of prosperity that has 
been the joy and the marvel of our recent history. 
Experience has amply demonstrated that this agency 
is necessary to the prosperity and efficiency of the 
Convention. Therefore we may well rejoice in every 
influence that contributes to strengthen the hands 
and to improve the resources of the Home Mission 
Board. 

Something new under the sun began to display 
itself at Greenville. We had long been accustomed 
to comparatively small assemblies and slight attend- 
ance upon the sessions of the body. Some of us, 
hoping to correct this evil, were striving to induce 
our brethren to return to the former practice of hold- 
ing biennial sessions. At Greenville the magnificent 
crowds began to appear that have recently become 
such a striking feature of our convocations. There 
were six hundred and sixteen members at Baltimore 
in 1884; Louisville entertained six hundred and fifty- 
six in 1887 ; and in other instances the figures have 
gone still higher. This remarkable change indicates 
the fact that our Baptist people have always felt a 
gratifying amount of interest in our affairs. I believe 
we have possessed the hearts of the people in a way 
that can be claimed by few of the religious organiza- 
tions of our country. The people would have been 
present even in the darkest hours of our history, but 
poverty forbade them. As soon as it became finan- 
cially possible for them to travel, they were delighted 
to put in their appearance. While we have a constit- 
uency of such numbers, character, and resources, 



A RETROSPECT 43 

there can be no further thought of surrender. A 
spirit of hopefulness and enterprise has been gaining 
ground for years. We feel that we can accomplish 
whatever it is sensible and prudent for us to under- 
take. The time has come when, without conceit, we 
may consider that we are well able to possess the land 
in which our lot is cast. 

In the gloomiest period of our suffering and priva- 
tion the wise and hopeful corresponding secretary of 
the Foreign Mission Board, Dr. H. A. Tupper, began 
to encourage and promote among our women an in- 
terest in the subject of missions. The earliest central 
committee was organized under his direction in the 
year 1876, and with persistent enthusiasm he pressed 
the enterprise wherever he could find an opportunity. 
There were many obstacles and many opponents, but 
in the year 1888, was finally established the Woman's 
Missionary Union. From the outset the women have 
been exceedingly helpful, but since the establishment 
of a central Board, they have become, in several im- 
portant respects, the right arm of our power. 

Members of the Convention were greatly mortified 
and discouraged by the failure of the Sunday-school 
Board, in 1873. For long years it was permitted to 
rest in peace. We were so often reminded that such 
an enterprise could not succeed in the South, that we 
were almost afraid to touch it a second time. But 
finally, some of our brethren screwed their courage to 
the sticking place and brought the matter to the 
attention of the Convention at two different sessions. 
After a thorough discussion of the subject in the press 
and on the platform, the Convention, in its session at 
Birmingham, in 1891, organized a new Sunday-school 
Board at Nashville. The result has transcended the 
most sanguine anticipations. The Sunday-school 
Board has done as much as any agency in recent 
years to excite a sense of pride in our Convention 
and of confidence in our capacities. 



44 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

One of the best consequences of the new and firmer 
hold on life which we have gained in the prosperous 
period of our history has been the increased repose 
and dignity which have thereby been encouraged. 
Especially have our sentiments grown more kindly 
and more fraternal toward our Northern brethren. 
The fact that our footing has been more secure has 
likewise operated to increase our interest in our col- 
ored brethren, and it is possible that in coming years 
it may be given us to do more to "elicit, combine, 
and direct " their energies for their own advantage 
than we have ever accomplished in the past. 

I have chosen as the motto of my historical dis- 
course the word of the Lord unto Moses: " Speak 
unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." 
And I must needs return to it in my closing sentences. 
Last year the Baptists of the Southern States contrib- 
uted only eight cents per member to promote the 
cause of foreign missions. It is presumed that a 
similar or even smaller amount was contributed for 
home missions and other objects ; but as I have not 
the facts at hand, it will be desirable to speak only of 
foreign missions. We have made great progress since 
the opening year of the Convention. Our regular 
contributions have advanced something like tenfold 
while our membership has hardly increased above five- 
fold. But we are still much behind our privileges and 
our duty. The other great popular denomination of 
our section, the Southern Methodist, contributed last 
year the sum of eighteen cents a member for foreign 
missions. A comparison between them and ourselves 
is for several reasons more just than can be instituted 
between us and other religious denominations. We 
abide this test very ill. It seems to be the sacred 
duty of us all, as ministers of religion and friends of 
missions, to speak unto the Baptists of the South that 
they go forward. They are surely equal to the feat 
which has been accomplished by our Methodist 



A RETROSPECT 45 

brethren. Indeed, if they should give their mind 
to it, they might as easily lead as follow after the 
Methodists. Here is a reasonable and sober standard. 
Let us in coming years bestir ourselves and see that 
we measure up to it. 

When the Convention was holding its opening ses- 
sion at Augusta, there was a lad just turned eighteen 
years, resting under the quiet shades of Culpeper, 
in far-distant Virgina. He was unknown to fame. 
Possibly no member of the body had ever heard his 
name. In due time he appeared upon the scene, and 
for a period of thirty years played the role of our 
"Great Commoner." For thirty years he was the 
leading force in our counsels and history, and yet 
throughout that entire period he did not occupy the 
smallest office directly in the gift of the Convention. 
This year of our jubilee, with all its light and glad- 
ness, has been sadly darkened by his departure. On 
the 17th of March devout men carried him to his 
burial and made great lamentation over him. The 
foremost leader of our history, great in the might of 
his gentleness, has passed away from us, but his fame 
and usefulness shall go and grow throughout the years 
and ages. When you who sit here shall be aged and 
feeble men and women, little children will gather 
about your knees with reverence and delight, to look 
upon one who has seen and heard and spoken with 
John A. Broadus. 



Ill 

THE CHRISTIAN HOPE 1 

BY R. J. WILLINGHAM, D. D. 

" Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure anH «tr*A 
fast, and wh.ch entereth into that within the vail." Heb. 6?i J 

\\f% are all creatures of hope. It enters into every 
VV relationship of human life. The day laborer 
goes forth in the early morning not having received 
his wages but he labors in hope of the same at The 
end of the day week, or month. The phvsician 
works in hope, the lawyer works in hope. The me" 
chant lays m his stock of goods hoping to sell hon- 
ing to collect. The tillerV the s?il |oes through 
heat and cold sowing, cultivating, waiting in hope. 
The parents in the home with the little child pa- 
tiently do their duty in hope; you think the little 

thL T T' C A deSS °t the future 5 n °t so with 
them. Many fond hopes show them a bright future 
of usefulness for the loved one. What is true in 
all these spheres of life is true in the Christian 
hfe as the child of light looks to the days to comT 

^tlu V % n v t? n h f ave "' the - reat white thron e, the 
angels of light, and yet we press on, day after day, 
year after year, because we have hope. 

What is the basis of hope ? Faith. Without faith 
there can be no hope. Strong faith gives strong 

baT „nr£ (^p b ^ etS Weak h °Pe- What is thf 
basis of faith ? Promises. What is the strength of 

• 'IT ^ i "t heCentralPresb >' teria n Church, Washington D C dur 
ing the Jubilee Sess.on of the Southern Baptist Convention ' 

46 




K. J. WlLLlKGHAM, 1)1). 



Robert Josiah Willingham was born May 15, 1854, in 
Beaufort District, S. C. His father, Deacon B. L. Willingham, 
now of Macon, Ga., has been for years a very prominent lay- 
man; quite successful in business, wise in counsel, and liberal 
in heart, he exerts a wide influence for good. His mother, 
Elizabeth Baynard, was a woman of rare gifts, of bright intellect, 
and very pious. 

Robert joined the church at thirteen. He attended school at 
the University of Georgia and received the A. m. degree in 
1873, graduating with high honors. 

He went into business and at the same time studied law, but 
feeling called of God to preach, gave up all his plans and at- 
tended the seminary in Louisville one year. 

His wife is a highly cultured and deeply pious woman. She 
was formerly Miss Corneille Bacon, of the noted Georgia family 
by that name. His pastorates were in Talbotton and Barnes- 
ville, Ga., and Chattanooga and Memphis, Tenn. He was very 
much blessed in all of these. The last six years of his pastor- 
ate he received over eight hundred into church-membership. 
He was called to the Corresponding Secretaryship of the Foreign 
Board in 1893, to a work which he loves and in which he has 
been prospered. 



THE CHRISTIAN HOPE 47 

promises ? The one who makes the promises. Here 
you have the whole connection. Hope depends on 
your faith in the one who makes the promises. This 
is true of the day laborer, the professional man, the 
merchant, of all. How is it with the Christian's 
hope ? Do we have to take the word of any man ? 
Do we have to build our hopes on the promises of any 
being of earth ? By no means ; we have the word of 
Almighty God. Day by day, and year by year, we 
press forward because we have faith in the promises 
of the King Eternal. When we consider, O mortal, 
our hope, let us realize that we build on the rock of 
eternal truth, the word of God. God has spoken and 
sealed it with an oath. At the old St. Giles' Church, 
in Edinburgh, Scotland, they tell you how the Cov- 
enanters would not sign the covenant in the church 
with ink, but went to the old gravestones near by and, 
opening their veins, signed the document on the 
tombstones with their blood. God has given us 
promises which he has signed in the blood of his Son 
on Calvary. Think of it ; when the Lord God Al- 
mighty, the great eternal God, wished to make pro- 
vision for you, poor lost man, weak, debased in sin, 
that he might deliver you, that he might help you, 
that he might hold you up, that he might finally 
give you an entrance into his home above — he wrote 
the promise in the blood of his only begotten Son. 
Hope, hope, blessed hope in God, through the prom- 
ises which he has given us. 

What of this hope ? It is described as an anchor 
to the soul sure and steadfast. See the figure which 
is used. A ship in a storm driven on a lee-shore 
finds the anchor her safety. So hope is to the Chris- 
tian an anchor, driven on the shoals of skepticism, in 
the whirlpools of disaster, in the dark nights of afflic- 
tion, in the mists and fogs of intellectual doubts, 
yea, in every trial and difficulty which sweeps around 
the soul. Iyook up and trust. God's word says of 



48 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

this hope it is sure. What else of earth is sure? 
Mention only one thing. The longer we live the 
more we see how uncertain is all here. Man pro- 
poses, but he fails in his plans. You remember 
how the great Napoleon, in telling his plans, was 
reminded by an old lady of the mutability of 
human affairs in these words : " Remember, sire, man 
proposes, but God disposes." He replied with 
hauteur : ' ' Napoleon proposes and Napoleon dis- 
poses." Even then he was going to defeat. One of 
our grandest, best men in a neighboring State not 
long since stood before an audience and told how he 
had accumulated property for his children, purposing 
to leave each one twenty thousand dollars. The 
means were in hand. The war swept it all away. 
He said, u If I cannot give it to them while I live, 
they shall have it when I die." He insured his life. 
The crash of 1873 came and the insurance companies 
failed. Then the children, one by one, continued to 
die until all had gone. He stood there alone, say- 
ing, u Property all gone, insurance all gone, children 
all gone, but Christ is mine still." The hope which 
had cheered his heart" fifty years before, cheered him 
still. 

This hope is also spoken of as steadfast. The idea 
is similar to the preceding. Nothing of earth is 
steadfast. The teachings of science are constantly 
changing. Not that the laws of nature change. No, 
never ! God's laws in his works change not, but 
man's interpretations of them are constantly chang- 
ing. Yet some people seem to think science and the 
Bible conflict. God's works never conflict with his 
words. It is only the puny interpretations which are 
put on one or the other that conflict. Teachings of sci- 
ence are constantly changing, and it is well. Coperni- 
cus was scoffed at for his theory. He revealed how 
planets, with their revolving satellites, revolve around 
the sun. When we find out all the truth, God's throne 



THE CHRISTIAN HOPE 49 

will be in the center and all revolving around that. 
God is the author and center of this universe. The 
teachings of science though are part of this earth, and 
that changes constantly. What is steadfast ? Take the 
mightiest empires and dominions of earth and their 
very ruins tell of weakness and decay. Go to Egypt 
with her glory reaching back through thousands of 
years and the monuments of her splendor, whose very 
history is forgotten, tell of the weakness of man's 
power. Proud Babylon is the habitation of desola- 
tion. Go to Athens and stand on her Acropolis, look 
for her splendor, and you find only the broken col- 
umns of the grand temple of Minerva. The theatre 
of Bacchus is a waste ; the prison of Socrates a hole 
in the rock. Desolate is the once thronged Pnyx 
where Demosthenes appealed to Grecian prowess, and 
Mars Hill, where Paul would awaken the still nobler 
instincts of manhood in calling on them for fidelity 
to God. Yet, all of these things cause a stillness to 
come over the soul, and an echo from the past inter- 
mingles with the sigh of the wind as it sweeps over 
the ruins with the ever-recurring refrain : 

Passing away, passing away ; 

All of earth is weakness and decay, 

Passing away, passing away. 

I might ask you to look at history and see how un- 
stable it all is ; history is but the biography and epi- 
taph of men and nations — the account of how they 
rise and fall. 

Take now your own experience. Go back twenty, 
thirty, or forty years ; how all has changed. Go sit 
in the old church again. What has come to pass ? 
The loved pastor gone. Dear man of God, he was 
faithful. But right there sat the young playmate, 
so bright and joyous. Where is he ? Gone. He 
lies out yonder. Others nearer and dearer, where 
are they ? Gone, also. But look no more without. 



50 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

I/)ok within, at your own self. You have changed, 
your affections, your desires, your longings. You say 
the world has changed. You have changed. But 
remember, one day sitting there in that church you 
felt a strange joy in your heart. You loved God, you 
loved all ; you looked beyond earth ; your trust, your 
hope was in Christ. Many changes have come, but 
this has not changed. No, no, the same old hope, the 
blessed hope is with you still — steadfast, fixed on 
God. 

Again, we are told of this hope that it entereth into 
that within the vail. This probably refers to Christ 
going into the Holy of Holies, even heaven itself, to 
intercede for us. When on Calvary he was dying, 
the vail which hung in the temple between the holy 
and most holy places was by an unseen hand from 
above torn in twain from top to bottom. Christ has 
gone into the Holy of Holies for us. We can come 
to God through him. We need no priest, no pope. 
The simplest, plainest, poorest, can come boldly to 
the mercy-seat and find grace to help in time of need. 
Our hope takes hold on Christ himself, yea, Christ in 
heaven. It is said that in ancient times when the 
mariner wished to make a certain port, if tide or wind 
were against him and he could not proceed, he would 
send the anchor forward in £ small boat and throw it 
out, and then with cable and capstan, draw up to that 
point, when he would again send it forward and thus 
proceed. The Christian has his anchor fixed in 
heaven, day by day he draws nearer. His progress 
may seem slow, but how sure when fixed, anchored 
to Christ. Do you feel tempest-tossed ? Never mind, 
fear not, if anchored to Christ. I read some time 
since of a ship in a storm on the Mediterranean. 
The anchor was thrown out and held with remark- 
able firmness through the storm. Afterward in pull- 
ing in the anchor, it was found that one of the flukes 
had taken hold of the ring in an old anchor which 






THE CHRISTIAN HOPE 5 1 

had lain sunken in the sea. The security of the boat 
was thus made sure by the smaller anchor taking 
hold of the larger. So, O Christian, your bark on 
life's sea may be tossed, but is securely being anchored 
into the buried but ascended Lord and Master. 

What does this hope do for us ? It makes us re- 
joice in the Lord our God. God's people should be a 
rejoicing people. It is wrong to go around whining, 
complaining, and fussing as though we were father- 
less and deserted. Think for a moment. God our 
Father ; our sins forgiven, blotted out through Christ 
our Saviour; the Holy Spirit our guide and com- 
forter ; heaven our home. Shall we complain ? We 
dishonor our Heavenly Father when we distrust him. 
If God has given his own Son to redeem us, how shall 
he not with him also freely give us all things ? What 
good thing will he withhold from them that love 
him? Let us rejoice in God more, trust him, and 
hope in his word. Hope makes us strong ; strong 
to endure. Trials and difficulties will come. Foes 
must be met. The fearful, timid heart cowers and 
flees. The hopeful heart takes courage, opposes, and 
overcomes. The man who hopes is the man who 
conquers. 

Hope also makes us patient, and this is one element 
of genuine strength of character, and marks true 
Christian excellence. Paul stood on lofty heights 
when he could quietly say in the midst of difficulties 
and trials, " For our light affliction, which is but for 
a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and 
eternal weight of glory." He does not say, we think, 
or we suppose ; but, " We know that all things work 
together for good to them that love God, to them 
who are the called according to his purpose." 

Hope helps us to work. While Christ lets us stay 
here watching and waiting for his coming, how much 
is to be done, in heart, in home, in country, in the 
world. And how weak we are. Who, looking at 



52 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

self, so weak and unworthy, would not draw back in 
despair ; but looking at Christ, seeing, hearing him as 
he says, " My grace is sufficient for you," " L,o, I am 
with you alway," who cannot press hopefully for- 
ward, saying: u Master, lead, I will follow"? Pre- 
cious thought, we are co-workers with God. We sow 
the seed, he gives the harvest. He says in due season 
we shall reap if we faint not. He tells us to be faith- 
ful, not successful. He will give the crown of life. 

And, lastly, hope takes the gloom from death and 
lights up the dying hour. What a desolation, a dark- 
ness to the man who looks at death and the grave 
without Christ there. The bottomless pit has been 
described as having written over the door, " He who 
enters here leaves hope behind." Oh, what a world 
of darkness and woe ! No God, no heaven, no hope, 
forever, forever lost. The great Saladin, when dying 
is said to have told the attendants to carry a winding 
sheet on a spear before him to the grave to let all 
know that was all that the great chieftain took with 
him. Caesar is said to have uttered in dying these 
words: " Is this all? Is this all?" How beautiful 
the picture as the aged Paul looks at death, and quietly 
says : " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my 
course, I have kept the faith : l Henceforth there is laid 
up for me. a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, 
the righteous judge, shall give me at that day ; and 
not to me only, but unto all them also that love his 
appearing." 

Dear brethren, you have been, some of you, but a 
short time on the voyage ; may your hope grow 
stronger every day. Some have been many long 
years on the way. The anchor has held you through 
many a storm. You are almost home. The haven 
is at hand. Soon the billows will be passed, and you 
will rest in the presence of the King. I give an in- 
cident. Years ago a boy was returning home after 
having been away for months for the first time to a 



THE CHRISTIAN HOPE 53 

school in another State. He was on a boat going 
home. Somehow the boat seemed to move slowly 
and stop often. From time to time he would go on 
the upper deck and ask the captain : " Are we almost 
there?" And the answer would come, u Not yet." 
A drizzly, cold December rain set in, night came on, 
and the captain, seeing anxiety in the boy's face, said : 
" Your father told me to tell you he would meet you 
at the landing." By-and-by, as a turn was made in 
the river, the captain said : " You see that light away 
down yonder ; well, your father is right there waiting 
for you." And sure enough he was there. Together 
through the darkness they went until they saw, at the 
head of the beautiful, broad avenue on the top of the 
hill, the loved old family mansion, with its lights and 
loving hearts, awaiting the son's coming home. Oh, 
how sweet the meeting, the greeting of the loved 
ones, the rest at home! The journey and the dark- 
ness were forgotten. At home again, at home again ! 
Years have passed. The old family circle is broken. 
The billows have beaten around us. Those who 
waited and watched for the boy that night have gone 
years ago, but somehow heaven has been nearer 
and sweeter ever since. They seem to be waiting 
and watching, still saying, 4C Brother, son, we are 
in the home and await you." The waves beat, the 
darkness lowers. Christ says, " I am the way, the 
truth, and the life." We trust, we hope, and through 
him we will meet again at home. " Which hope we 
have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast, 
and which entereth into that within the vail." 



IV 

GROUND OF JUDGMENT 

BY REV. B. H. CARROLL, D. D. 

" Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my breth- 
ren ye have done it unto me. . . Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the 
least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into ever- 
lasting punishment : but the righteous into life eternal." Matt. 25 : 40, 
45, 46. 

FOR four thousand years after the creation of the 
world one forecast of the future loomed up as 
the great coming event before the eyes of all intelli- 
gences. It was the highest mountain peak in the 
chain of coming events. I refer to the first advent of 
the Son of God. The prophets climbed up the high- 
est mountains of inspiration, and from that lofty 
standpoint, having a wide sweep of vision, they 
strained their eyes and exercised their prophetic ken 
to discern the time and manner and purpose of that 
coming. And kings and princes longed to see that 
day. His coming was " the desire of all nations." 

But when he came he so came as to disappoint the 
expectations of those who were looking for him. I 
mean that the guise in which he came was a terrible 
1 disappointment to carnal men who so long expected 
[him. There was not enough pomp and pageant. 
He did not come as a king on a throne and sur- 
rounded by guards and attended by conquering 
armies. In coming he condescended; he who thought 
it not robbery to be called equal with God and who 
was God, stooped to take the form of a slave. That 
is what the w r ord means, slave, not servant. He 
54 




!B. H. Cakroll, D. D. 



B. H. Carroll was born near Carrollton, Carroll county, 
Miss., December 27, 1843. When he was about six years old 
his father moved to Drew County, Ark., and in the winter of 
1858 to Burleson County, Tex. He took the A. m. degree 
from Baylor University. Served four years in Confederate army, 
and was wounded at Mansfield, Ga. He was converted in 1865 ; 
ordained in 1866; married to Miss Ellen Bell, at Starkville, Miss. 

Dr. Carroll has been pastor of the First Baptist Church, Waco, 
Tex., twenty-five years. Was made a d. d. by the State Uni- 
versity, Nashville. The American Baptist Publication Society 
has brought out one volume of his sermons. The book sup- 
ports his reputation for being a courageous and powerful preacher 
of a pure gospel. 



GROUND OF JUDGMENT 55 

left the throne of heaven to be born in a stable 
and cradled in a cow-trongh. And he was poor. 
The foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had 
nests, but the Son of Man had not where to lay his 
head. He came in humiliation. He came as a 
sufferer. He came to endure the great passion ap- 
pointed to him. And, coming in that guise and 
for such purpose, there was no beauty in him when 
men saw him that they should desire him. To 
them he was without form or comeliness, and in his 
great suffering they esteemed him afflicted and smit- 
ten of God. And he stooped unto death and into 
death and triumphed over death in his own realm 
and rose above the grave, and above Jerusalem, and 
above the mountains, and above the clouds, and 
above the stars, and ever up, challenging the heav- 
enly portals as he rose : " Lift up your heads, O ye 
gates, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and 
the King of Glory shall come in." And entering, he 
took his place upon the throne on high. 

Daniel saw that. He says : " I saw in the night vis- 
ions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with 
the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, 
and they brought him near before him. And there 
was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, 
that all people, nations, and languages should serve 
him : his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which 
shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall 
not be destroyed." Concerning him thus received 
in heaven, the Apostle Peter now says : " Whom the 
heavens must receive until the times of restitution 
of all things." But before he ascended he said : " I 
will come again. I will come in like manner as I go 
up. I will come in the clouds of heaven. " Now, 
from the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of 
Jesus Christ, for nearly two thousand years the second 
advent of the Son of God has been the stupendous 
coming event of all the future. The eyes of the 



56 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

world and of the angels are fixed upon it. As the 
first advent caught and held with fascinating and 
attractive power the thought of all intelligences for 
four thousand years, so now the second advent fills the 
vision of the universe. u When the Son of man shall 
come in his glory " — mark the emphasis, in his- glory 
— and the implied contrast. The first time he came in 
his humiliation. The first time he came as a slave. 
When he comes again he will come in his glory. He 
will come as a king indeed. He will come in all the 
splendid sheen of heavenly apparel. He will come 
environed by guards this time and with pomp and 
majesty and circumstance and pageantry enough to 
satisfy the greatest sensationalists that ever desired to 
see a startling thing. 

But when he conies who will come with him ? The 
context says : " When the Son of man shall come in 
his glory, and all the holy angels with him." They 
are said to be an innumerable company ; seraphim 
and cherubim ; holy angels, all the holy angels. For 
the first time since the creation of the world heaven 
will be emptied. When he starts to descend that 
next time the decree will go forth : " L,et all the 
angels of God fall into line." " Wheel into column," 
and while the eye cannot look to the end of that line 
of fire, all of them, all of them will come down with 
him. Angels ! You have heard of them. They 
were in paradise. They kept the way of the tree of 
life after expulsion from it. Abraham entertained 
them. When Jacob slept they came to him and he 
saw them descending and ascending the ladder to 
heaven, which symbolized the Lord Jesus Christ es- 
tablishing communication between the upper and the 
lower world. When Jesus was born a special choir 
of them filled the welkin of heaven with hosannas 
when they sang: u Glory to God in the highest, and 
on earth peace, good will toward men." They re- 
leased Peter from prison. They came to John. They 



GROUND OF JUDGMENT 57 

smote . Herod. And one of them breathed the cold 
chill of death into the hearts of one hundred and 
eighty thousand of the hosts of Sennacherib. Angels, 
holy angels ! I will tell you directly why they will 
come with him. 

Who else will come with him ? We are informed 
in the twelfth chapter of Hebrews that now, with the 
innumerable company of angels in heaven and in the 
presence of God, are the spirits of the just made per- 
fect, the souls of all good men and women and chil- 
dren, the spirits that had been by death released from 
the tabernacle which fell to pieces here upon this 
earth. Those disembodied, but perfected and justified 
spirits, now in heaven, they will come with him. 
What is the proof? In the letter to the Thessalo- 
nians Paul says : " For if we believe that Jesus died 
and rose again, even so them also which sleep in 
Jesus will God bring with him." And Jude says : 
" Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his 
saints." 

And that will be a startling denouement. When 
the legions of the angels have been marshaled and 
the decree goes forth where the spirits are resting in 
the paradise of God in the presence of the blessed 
one : " Come out, ye spirits. Come out, spirits of 
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Come out, all ye dis- 
embodied souls and fall into line. I want to take 
you with me. I am going to visit the earth you once 
inhabited. I want to carry you there for a special 
purpose." And so they come with him. And they 
come down, descending with the sound of a trumpet, 
and the shout of the archangel and in the sheen of 
flashing wings, and in the glory and splendor of 
heaven they come, down, down, down. They pause 
in the air, poised above the earth. 

Simultaneously with that descent from above, the 
descent of the King in his glory and of his holy 
angels and of the just made perfect with him, there 



58 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

is an ascent from below, and that is the calling up of 
the unholy angels. Satan, the great serpent, the 
dragon, the arch-fiend, Diabolus, the accuser of the 
brethren. From below, drawn by the imperious com- 
mand of his Creator and Judge, he will come, and his 
demons with him. The demons that in the days of 
Christ took possession of men and made them blas- 
pheme ; the demons that defiled souls and obstructed 
the progress of the gospel by wiles and stratagems 
and delusions and every kind of fallacy and sophis- 
try ; the demons who seduced men, whose doctrines 
poisoned the souls of men ; the demons who, under 
the guidance of Satan, fought every foot of the pro- 
gress of Jesus Christ. They will come. I will tell 
you why directly. 

And who else will come ? The spirits of the lost 
will come with him. Dives and those like him in 
torment. Hell shall give up the dead which are in 
it. Men, spirits of men, who for sin on earth have 
been cast down in chains and darkness, are brought 
up from the prison-house of woe and despair, and 
they with the devil and his angels gather toward that 
central point. That will be a sublimely awful sight. 
Oh, it will be such a sight as no man has ever yet 
looked upon. 

Now, as these two spiritual hosts approach to a 
common center, what happens? First, the dead 
arise. When it says the dead in Christ shall rise first, 
it does not mean that the dead in Christ shall arise 
before the wicked dead, but it means that the dead in 
Christ shall rise before the living Christians are 
changed. The first event in order is the resurrection of 
the dead, and living people will see it. They will wit- 
ness the opening of the graves and they will see the 
body that has been buried or burned, or whose ashes 
have been scattered to the four winds of heaven, the 
dead from the sea, from the forest, from under mau- 
soleums and from lowly and unmarked burial places, 



GROUND OF JUDGMENT 59 

the dead will rise. The righteous dead will rise 
transfigured and glorified. Corruption puts on in- 
corruption ; mortality, immortality. That which 
was sown in weakness is raised in power. But they 
are as yet only bodies. Now, the king yonder, look- 
ing down at these still, lifeless bodies of his saints 
shall say to his angels : " Bring them here ! Sever 
them from the unjust." And as they are brought, 
the spirits who once inhabited them recognize the 
houses in which they once lived, and with joy un- 
speakable, rush into the renovated and glorified habi- 
tation which they once animated ; and the whole man, 
soul and body, is now united, perfected and glorified 
and sanctified. 

Then what? The living Christians, the ones 
who have not died, and who will never die, these 
undergo a change. Paul says : " Behold I show you 
a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall 
all be changed, in a moment, ... at the last 
trump, for the dead shall be raised, and we shall be 
changed. " And that marvelous change which took 
place when Enoch was translated and Elijah conveyed 
in a chariot of fire to heaven, that change takes place 
in every living Christian. Glorified without death, 
they are caught up with the resurrection bodies of the 
spirits already with Jesus — yes, together with the 
Lord in the air, and so shall they forever be with the 
Lord. 

And the spirits of the lost find their bodies raised, 
raised immortal but not glorified, raised immortal but 
not conformed to the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
these they re-enter, so that the whole man is together 
again. Then they stand with the unholy angels. 

Now what? That leaves on earth only the living 
sinners. What awful things they have witnessed ! 
How terribly suggestive their being left alone. Ah ! 
what can it mean ? " Then shall two be in the field ; 
the one shall be taken and the other left. Two 



6o THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

women shall be grinding at the mill ; the one shall 
be taken and the other left." What does it fore- 
bode ? Yon remember that when God took the one 
righteons man out of Sodom and left only the living 
wicked, what followed. If the salt is taken away, 
does not corruption ensue ? If light is withdrawn, 
does not darkness follow ? If those whose presence 
alone have hitherto restrained the wrath of God, if 
they are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and 
only the living wicked are upon the earth, what fol- 
lows? That passage read in Malachi is fulfilled. 
Fire leaps forth. It rushes out from the forest ; fire 
from the plain ; fire from river and lake and pool and 
sea and ocean, until Arctic and Antarctic and South- 
ern and Indian and Atlantic and Pacific oceans, in 
one great conflagration meet the fire from the shore, 
and there is a deluge of fire as there had been a del- 
uge of water. By the same word of God that brought 
the deluge of water, by that same word of God, the 
heavens and the earth which now are kept in store 
are reserved unto fire unto the day of judgment and 
the perdition of ungodly men ; and the living wicked 
shall be burned up in that fire. I am not now talk- 
ing about hell. I am talking about the literal fire, 
and they die in that fire. They do not escape death. 
They are not transfigured. They are not transferred 
across the river of death. They die ; they die by 
fire, and they are ashes under the feet of the right- 
eous literally and truly. And they are raised after 
that death, and their bodies are immortal but not 
glorified. The fire had come as the water came, but 
as the water did not annihilate, neither will the fire 
annihilate. There will be a new heaven and a new 
earth, as before there was a new heaven and a new 
earth. And now, that all the preparatory steps are 
taken, the King takes his place on the throne. 

" I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on 
it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled 



GROUND OF JUDGMENT 6l 

away. . . And I saw the dead, small and great, 
stand before God. n And our context says: " He 
shall sit on the throne of his glory, and before him 
shall be gathered all nations. " 

Yes, all nations shall be gathered before him. 
There is the supreme court whose decision is infalli- 
ble and irreversible. There is the tribunal which 
shall reverse ten thousand earthly decisions. The 
great white throne of eternal judgment ! All men 
and all angels shall stand before it. 

The question now arises : Who will be judged? 
And I say, angels, holy angels. And what will be 
the ground of the judgment of holy angels? Not 
that they kept their first estate — the result of that 
keeping hath already been with them — but because 
they worshiped the Son of God when they were 
called on to worship him ; because they served him 
when they were called on to serve him ; because they 
were the ministering spirits to them that are the heirs 
of salvation ; because they furthered the gospel of 
the Son of God, therefore are the elect angels con- 
firmed, and in that way is the Scripture fulfilled : 
" He shall reconcile things in heaven as well as 
things on earth." Then evil angels will be judged, 
not because they kept not their first estate — they are 
already cast out for that — but because they would not 
fall down and worship the Son of God when he was 
brought into the world. Because they opposed the 
gospel and fought it over every inch of ground. 
Because they beguiled men and kept them from 
believing in the gospel, hoodwinked and blinded 
them, took possession of them and degraded them. 
Because they persecuted the righteous. Because they 
worried and troubled God's people, therefore they will 
be judged. And there is no other ground of judg- 
ment for them. And that disposes of the angels, 
good and bad. 

Now, the nations are gathered, all nations, all peo- 



62 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

pie in one congregation. There they are gathered 
together. What follows next? " He shall separate 
them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his 
sheep from the goats." Mark the word " separate," 
right and left ! Right and left ! Divide, open ranks. 
You stand there, and you there. Father here, mother 
over yonder. Daughter there, son here ; brothers, 
one of you here, the other there. Right and left. 
Divide ! Divide ! Separate ! That will take the 
light of hope out of the hearts of all evil men. Oh, 
there will be weeping at the judgment seat of Christ ! 
There yawns the impassable chasm. No bridge can 
span it. No wing can fly across it. Separate ! Sepa- 
rate ! Separate ! Good-bye forever ! 

And now comes to those on the right hand the final 
sentence. Oh, what a sentence ! "Come." The invi- 
tation, the welcome in it. u Come ye blessed of my 
Father, come and inherit the kingdom prepared for 
you from the foundation of the world. Open wide 
the door, come in ye blessed, come in, come home, 
come healed, come cleansed, come washed, come 
whiter than snow. Come crowned. Come with 
harps. Come singing. Come with melody in your 
hearts. Come glorified. Come, ye blessed of my 
Father." 

Why? Now, we will get into the very root of the 
matter. Why ? For I was an hungered and ye gave 
me meat. I was thirsty and ye gave me drink. I 
was naked and ye clothed me : I was sick and in 
prison and ye visited me. That is why. That 
proves the proposition that only one thing is the 
ground of judgment, only one thing, and it is the sole 
ground of God's judgment of men and angels, viz., 
their treatment of his Son Jesus Christ. That is all. 
There is no other. It is not that these men fell in 
Adam. It is not that being fallen in Adam they 
cursed and swore and stole and murdered ; not that. 
For that the sentence was already passed. They 



GROUND OF JUDGMENT 63 

were condemned for that already. No trial about 
that up yonder, not a bit. But for what ? That being 
fallen ; being sinners ; being condemned sinners, God 
brought the gospel to them. Jesus Christ came to 
them. An overture of salvation was made to them, 
and they rejected that. This is the ground of judg- 
ment. The condemnation is that light has come 
into the world and men love darkness rather than 
light. For no matter how great a sinner a man is, 
no matter how great a sinner he has been, if sinful as 
he is, fallen as he was and is, he will accept the over- 
ture of redemption in Jesus Christ, that sets him free 
from condemnation forever. That acquits him. 
Being justified by faith he is entitled to peace with 
God. As many condemned sinners as received him, 
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, 
even to them that believed on his name. If he re- 
ceived the Lord Jesus Christ, who came to rescue him 
from the condemnation that was already on him, well 
for him. If he rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, woe 
to him. No other ground of judgment, and no plead- 
ing will even be listened to based on your record in 
other things, for on that record sentence has already 
been pronounced, and that judgment has already 
been written, and it is righteous, and you are lost, 
and you stand lost. The sole question is, what did 
you do with Jesus who came to rescue you from that 
condemnation ? And the word of God does not give 
a hint of anything else as the ground of final judg- 
ment. 

But just here seems to be a difficulty. If every- 
thing depends upon our treatment of Jesus, how can 
we, who never personally knew, accord him treat- 
ment of any kind — either good or bad ? If he says : 
" I was hungry and ye fed me ; naked and ye clothed 
me ; sick and ye visited me," making everything de- 
pend upon the treatment of him — what else can we 
say: " Lord, when did we see thee an hungered; 



64 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

thee sick ; thee in prison ; thee naked ? Why, you 
passed out of the world eighteen hundred years be- 
fore I was born ; or, I passed out of the world eighteen 
hundred years before you were born. When did I 
give food and drink to you, and clothing to you, and 
visit you?" Now, mark. This brings us to the 
text at the end of the service, and that is a good way 
to preach, lead up to the text. " Inasmuch as ye did 
it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye did it 
unto me." What does that prove? That the sole 
ground of the judgment is our treatment of Jesus 
Christ in his people and in his gospel, and he identi- 
fies himself with his people and his gospel. Now, I 
want to clear that up a little. I want to make it per- 
fectly obvious to you by an illustration. He sent out 
some disciples, saying: "As you go, preach, and 
when you enter a city, preach in my name, by my 
authority, the message that I bid you, and if they re- 
ceive you they receive me ; and if they reject you 
they reject me. I make this treatment of you a per- 
sonal matter." Here rises a wonderful scene. I can- 
not get some pictures out of my mind. See these 
preachers coming to a place and the people who re- 
ceive them. What then ? He tells the preachers to 
do a certain thing. I can see the picture of it in my 
mind. Two men standing in the street of a city 
where they have preached Jesus and Jesus has been 
rejected. Now, by the commandment of Jesus 
Christ, they stoop down and commence untying their 
shoes, loosening their sandals, and they take their 
shoes off and, clinging to their shoes, is the dust of 
the street of that city on which they stood and 
preached, and the word says : " Shake it off for a 
witness. Shake it off for a testimony." That dust 
on which men stood and preached Jesus Christ is 
brought up and put on the judgment bar and testi- 
fies : " O Son of God, we, the grains of sand upon 
which apostolic feet stood and preached Jesus to 



GROUND OF JUDGMENT 65 

these men on the left hand, we were shaken off the 
feet of the apostles where Jesus was rejected. We 
testify in the court of heaven against them." 

I have a little pebble about as big as the end of 
my finger, of no intrinsic value, though it is a beau- 
tiful pebble and it has a tinge of crimson running 
through it. As I was informed by the one who gave 
it to me, that pebble was picked out of the track of 
Maximilian after he was shot. He stood on that 
little stone and was shot to death. I had a gold 
fastening made for it and gave it to my little daughter, 
and told her that that pebble would be at the judg- 
ment bar of God as a witness of the righteousness or 
of the unrighteousness of the execution of Maxi- 
milian. And the rafters in the roof of the house 
and the beams in the wall shall speak out in that day 
and tell their stories of how men received or rejected 
the Lord Jesus Christ. 

And when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come, saith 
Paul, in flaming fire taking vengeance upon them 
that have not obeyed the gospel, he will recompense 
tribulation to them that have troubled you, and he 
will recompense rest to you that were troubled. And 
what was the ground of that tribulation ? That they 
troubled God's people. They troubled Israel. They 
brought a reproach upon Israel. They marred the 
purity of the white flag of Jesus. They obstructed 
the gospel. They put stumbling-blocks in the way 
of God's people. They caused strife and division. 
They, for selfish ends, and to satisfy their own greed, 
sacrificed the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. And 
this I say, is the only ground of judgment. The 
sentence of Jesus Christ, when that comes, what will 
you do ? How will you receive it ? Let me speak 
for myself : I do not think that I am an undue en- 
thusiast, nor do I think that intense thought and long 
study on this subject hath made me mad. I think I 
I speak but the words of truth and soberness when I 



66 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

say that I would rather my right hand should forget 
its cunning and rny tongue cleave to the roof of my 
mouth in everlasting silence than to say " not at 
home " to Jesus Christ when he comes in his cause, 
whether he come by day or by night. When he 
comes and knocks and I hear it, and he says : " I am 
hungry, give me bread. I am thirsty, give me drink. 
I am naked, clothe me." When I hear his voice 
from the prison : " Come to me in bonds. Be not 
ashamed of my bonds." I hear him in his perse- 
cuted cause, crying : " Help, help, or I perish." Oh, 
God forbid that I should ever turn my back and close 
my eyes and ears and say, u Count me out, count me 
out." 



Thomas Treadwell Eaton was born November 16, 1845, in 
Murfreesboro, Tenn. His father was Joseph H. Eaton, ll. d., 
President of the University of Virginia. His mother was, be- 
fore marriage, Miss Esther M. Treadwell, for some years editor 
of the "Aurora." He studied in Murfreesboro until after his 
father's death in 1859, ano ^ then entered Madison (now Colgate) 
University, where his uncle, George W. Eaton, d. d., ll. d., was 
president. In 1861 he returned to Tennessee on account of the 
war and soon enlisted in the Seventh Tennessee Cavalry, C. S. 
A., and served under Forrest. His education was resumed at 
Washington and Lee University after the war, where he gradu- 
ated in 1867. Dr. Eaton has served the First Church, Chat- 
tanooga, Tenn. ; First Church, Petersburg, Va. ; and is now pas- 
tor of the Walnut Street Church, Louisville, Ky., and editor of 
the "Western Recorder." The Walnut Street Church is the 
largest white church of any denomination in the South. During 
Dr. Eaton' s pastorate there have been over three thousand five 
hundred additions, and large colonies have been sent out. At 
one time seven hundred and eleven letters were granted. The 
present membership is one thousand five hundred and fifty. In 
1880 he received the degree of D. D. from Washington and Lee 
University, and ll. d. from Southwestern Baptist University in 
1886. 




T. T. Eaton, D. D., LL. D 



V 

TRUTH A LIBERATOR 

BY T. T. EATON, D. D., LL. D. 

"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." 
John 8 : 32. 

THE extreme views on the subject of freedom 
which have followed the wild proclamation of 
liberty, have done great harm in the world. What 
we need, therefore, as the pendulum swings too far 
that way, is to insist with greater emphasis on the 
duty of obedience. Though a child be heir and lord 
of all, who is there that would be always talking to 
him of the delights of doing as he pleases and of 
the hardship of being under governors and tutors? 
Would you not rather urge upon him the obligation 
to obey his tutors, and emphasize rather the duty of 
submission than the delights of freedom? Would 
constant talking to the heir about liberty make him 
wiser and happier ? His present duty is obedience, 
and this will remain his duty till the time appointed 
for him to be no longer under tutors and governors. 
We cannot make him free by all the eloquence we 
can use about the delights of liberty ; all we can ac- 
complish will be to make him restless and unhappy, 
disobedient and miserable. Then too we interfere 
with his progress. All his time and energies should 
be cheerfully given to mastering the tasks assigned 
him, and thus preparing himself for the responsibili- 
ties awaiting him, when he shall enter upon his in- 
heritance. 

Go into the schoolrooms and families of our land 

67 



68 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

and proclaim to the children, u Yon are free ; these 
teachers and parents shall have no more authority 
over you ; henceforth you are to be a law unto your- 
selves, and shall control your persons and estates. " 
Would that be a kindness to the children? What 
would a child thus freed do with himself and with 
his estate ? Is he free in the true sense of freedom ? 
Nay, have you not rather placed upon him a burden 
greater than he can bear? And would a child be 
happy in possession of such liberty ? Has he not a 
right to good guidance, and do you not wrong him by 
depriving him of it ? If you really desired his wel- 
fare you would urge him to strict obedience to his 
parents and tutors, and would persuade him that they 
were working for his good. You would teach him 
to do gladly and with his might all his appointed 
tasks, although he could see no use in them, and they 
were dry and tedious ; for his tutors and parents were 
wiser than he and knew those very duties were neces- 
sary for his right development. And the higher the 
rank of the child, the sterner is the necessity for strict 
obedience to the authority over him. It is related of 
that wise mother, the Duchess of Kent, that she al- 
lowed no one to tell her daughter, Victoria, how near 
she stood to the throne of England, and not till she was 
fourteen years old did she know that a higher destiny 
awaited her than awaited her cousins who were her fel- 
low-pupils. Then it was deemed best to let her know, 
and the genealogical table of the House of Hanover 
was left in her text-book on history. She examined 
it carefully and found that she would succeed to the 
throne on the death of her uncle. Turning to her 
governess, who sat by watching eagerly what would 
be the effect of the disclosure, she said, " Now I know 
why you were so much stricter with me in Latin 
grammar than you were with my cousins. I never 
understood it before." A wise mother chose that 
governess, and she had trained the child wisely, show- 



TRUTH A LIBERATOR 69 

ing the greatest strictness in training her upon whom 
the greatest responsibilites would rest. It might an- 
swer for the others to grow up with poorly trained 
minds, but not so with the future queen. And it 
speaks volumes for the character of Victoria that her 
first thought was not of the grandeur that awaited 
her, but of the wisdom of her governess. 

Although we are heirs of God, yet are we children, 
and need to be reminded of the duty and dignity 
and glory of obedience, rather than of the sweets of 
liberty. Our highest honor is in a strict following of 
the appointed path, instead of insisting on making a 
path for ourselves; and the higher our destiny the 
more important that we be kept closely to the duties 
assigned us. Christians are heirs to higher thrones 
and grander kingdoms than was the young Victoria, 
and therefore they need to be more careful and 
thorough in their obedience. The chief care should 
be to be made exactly after the pattern shown them 
in the mount. They need to be urged to cheerfully 
bear the cross after their Lord, rather than to do as 
they please. There is little doing as one pleases in 
cross-bearing and crucifying the flesh. The more a 
man deserves freedom the more does he feel his need 
of guidance and the more cheerfully does he follow 
one wiser than he. It is always the man of least 
capacity and knowledge who is surest of his own in- 
fallibility. Humility and willingness to follow good 
guidance, are unfailing marks of wisdom. 

But the time comes when the heir is of age and 
must pass from under the control of tutors and gov- 
ernors and enter upon the joys and perils of freedom. 
He is supposed, however, during his pupilage, to 
have learned to be a law unto himself. He must no 
longer cling to the guiding hands that have directed 
his youth ; that would be to make his tutors lords of 
his inheritance, and would prove him unworthy of 
the destiny before him. Then is the time to speak to 



JO THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

him of the responsibilities of freedom, and not when 
he is under age and needing to be trained in obedi- 
ence. When Israel is at peace in Canaan, with every 
man under his own vine and fig tree, it will do to 
talk to them of freedom, but out yonder in the wil- 
derness they need to obey Moses unhesitatingly and 
unquestioningly, and as they drive their foes before 
them they must submit heartily to the leadership of 
Joshua. 

If, so soon as they crossed the Red Sea, every man 
had resolved to be " free " and to traverse the wilder- 
ness as he saw best, how many would have reached 
the Jordan alive ? If after crossing the Jordan, they 
had been " independent " of Joshua, how long till the 
Canaanites would have destroyed them? Had the 
children of Israel remained in Canaan and walked in 
the footsteps of their father, Abraham, they would 
have needed no Moses and no Joshua.. But they had 
gone down into Egypt and been slaves there, and 
coming out of the house of bondage, ignorant and 
untrained, freedom to them would have been destruc- 
tion. Had our race remained in Eden, they would 
have been free and would ere long have been con- 
firmed in holiness. But they sold themselves as 
slaves to sin, and rescued from that bondage, they 
need to be under tutelage. Though regenerated by 
the Holy Spirit, our evil propensities are not eradi- 
cated, the law of sin is still in our members ; we need 
therefore to follow closely our Master, even though he 
lead us to the cross. 

" Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make 
you free." What grand words are these — truth and 
freedom. What is freedom ? We hear little else in 
these last days, "free thought/' "free speech," "free 
country," "free press," "free men," "free trade," 
free ! free ! free ! — the air is full of it, but what is 
freedom ? It is well to stop occasionally and define 
these vague words that are going up and down 



TRUTH A LIBERATOR 7 1 

the earth. There is nothing more dangerous than 
such vague words that all men speak, but do not 
define clearly to their minds. A truth to be effect- 
ive must be incisive ; you cannot pierce to the di- 
viding asunder of joints and marrow with a column 
of mud or a sword of down. An error exactly defined 
can be met, while one that is vague eludes you. 
You cannot wrestle with a bank of fog. What is 
freedom ? I would like to put that question to every 
one of you and see how many different answers I 
would receive. 

One man thinks that freedom consists in choosing 
the rulers he wishes to be over him, instead of obey- 
ing an hereditary monarch. Go then and vote, but 
you do not get the rulers you wish unless a majority 
of your fellow-citizens choose as you do, so that in 
order for you to be free, a majority must think as you 
think. Unless you can compel them to think so, 
where is your freedom, and if you can, then what be- 
comes of theirs ? If the majority put in rulers you do 
not wish, are you practically any freer than if the 
rulers were born over you ? To be free to choose 
your own rulers you must be careful to always side 
with the majority ; though that is a freedom from 
principle not yet extolled in the paeans to liberty, 
though I cannot tell how long till it will be so. Then 
suppose you get the rulers you wish and they abuse 
their authority ? Suppose they fail to protect your 
property and life from thieves and murderers, so that 
you have no feeling of security night or day, are you 
free while living thus, even though you had the high 
privilege of helping to elect such rulers ? Think it 
out, and tell me whether political freedom does not 
consist in having good rulers, however they may 
come to be rulers, who shall so restrain evil-doers as 
to give well-doers security, who shall impose no tax 
upon you not absolutely necessary, and interfere as 
little as possible with all legitimate business ? There 



72 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

can be no freedotii for honest men without restraint 
for thieves. 

Another man, and he voices the prevalent senti- 
ment, defines freedom to be the right of every man 
to do as he pleases. But suppose he pleases to do 
wrong and injure others? Suppose he pleases to 
burn your house, and you please that he shall not do 
it, how can both be free? If the law restrain him 
from injuring others as he desires, is he free? But 
the man answers indignantly : " There is a wide dif- 
ference between freedom and license." Exactly so; 
but what is that difference ? Liberty to do as I please, 
whether good or bad, is not freedom but license, then. 
Very well, if I desire to do wrong and am restrained, 
I cannot be said to be free, in the popular sense, no 
matter what shape that restraint may take, whether 
bonds which prevent my using my hands, or fear of 
the punishment that will follow. So, tracing the 
matter up step by step we see that true freedom comes 
only with an absence of all desire to do wrong and a 
willingness to do right. 

True freedom is opportuity to make the most and 
the best of all the capacities in us, and only when de- 
sire to do wrong is gone can we have such opportu- 
nity. This is what Paul meant by being " made free 
from the law." You are free from the law against 
murder, for you have not the slightest desire to com- 
mit that crime ; so to you the law is dead. But if you 
should have such desire, then the dead law revives, 
and the penalty would restrain you — if only our laws 
were executed — alas! and your freedom would be 
gone. So long as your will is in conformity to the 
law, you are free, but let your will arise in opposition 
to the law, and you are in bondage. The law of God 
binds closer than the laws of the land, and Christians 
should be free from this law so that they need not be 
warned of the penalty of violation, but simply told of 
any given act, it is wrong. We are free from many 



TRUTH A LIBERATOR 73 

of the laws of God in this sense. For example, the 
law against the worship of Moloch, though alive in 
the days of Solomon and Josiah, is utterly dead to us 
now, for we have no desire to worship that idol nor 
to pass our children through the fire. We would not 
do so even if that command were not in the Bible. 
Now the more of the laws of God and man we can 
thus make dead to us, the freer we are, and this is 
true freedom. Christ frees us from the law as his 
grace takes from us all disposition to violate the law ; 
and the more we grow in grace, the more we grow in 
freedom. Christians are free in many things, and the 
angels are freer still. 

What else can freedom mean than this, unless you 
make it mean lawlessness ? If I must be allowed to 
do as I please in order to be free, every other man 
must have the same privilege or he is not free. Our 
freedoms clash, and we cannot both do as we wish. 
He pleases to take my purse and I please to keep him 
from taking it ; we cannot both have our pleasure. 
And if freedom is lawlessness, we cannot both be free. 
Is it not the idea of many people, alas, that freedom 
means that I can do as I please but others cannot — 
there must be liberty for me, but restraint for them ? 
Are we not drifting toward what was said to be the 
Frenchman's idea of liberty, " the right of every man 
to control every other man " ? If all please to keep 
the law, then can all have their pleasure and all be 
free. There can be perfect freedom only where there 
is perfect obedience to rightful authority. The more 
sin the less freedom. 

What then is freedom ? It is the perfect harmony 
of our desires and actions with the law of God. If 
fond of modern lights, I might say freedom is being 
" in perfect harmony with our environment," but that 
is the solar system with the sun left out. We are 
slaves to whatever prevents our being free, and in 
preventing our hearts from being in accord with 



74 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

God's law, we are the slaves of sin, no matter where 
that law is found. In the law governing our physical 
natures the definition holds good. No man is physi- 
cally free who is suffering pain and weakness. But 
these follow in proportion to the disobedience to 
God's laws governing our physical natures ; hence 
perfect freedom consists of perfect accord with those 
laws. A man is free from nerves when he is in such 
perfect accord with the laws of health that no pain 
reminds him that he has any nerves. 

I have dwelt on this point till I fear you are 
wearied ; but I do wish that we all had this definition 
of freedom firmly fixed in our minds. Satan has done 
untold harm in the world by giving men wrong ideas 
of freedom. There is nothing nobler than true free- 
dom, no grander thing can man achieve than to bring 
himself into harmony with the laws of God ; and 
nothing is more harmful than that lawlessness which 
seeks to get rid of obligation. No wonder all noble 
men yearn for freedom, and sad is it for them when 
Satan can blind their eyes to their bondage and make 
them think that liberty is license, and freedom law- 
lessness. 

Mankind is a race of slaves to sin. " His slaves ye 
are," Paul declares, " whom ye obey, whether of sin 
unto death or of obedience unto righteousness." 
When our consciences are roused and we feel the 
chains of our bondage, Satan cunningly sets us seek- 
ing a spurious freedom, so that we may even boast, 
as did the Pharisees to Jesus, " we were never in 
bondage to any man," and the yoke of slavery was 
upon them while they spake. " Whosoever commit- 
teth sin is the bondservant of sin." Base bondage 
to a base master ; while our heritage is the glorious 
freedom of the sons of God. How shall we win this 
freedom ? Jesus answers, "The truth shall make you 
free." Then comes the great question from the lips 
of the ages, " What is truth? " 






TRUTH A LIBERATOR 75 

Grander words were never put together than " ye 
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you 
free." Truth is a knowledge of God, and of the re- 
lations in which he has placed us to himself, to our 
fellows, and to creation. The highest and most 
important truth is the knowledge of God and of our 
relations to him. Nothing else deserves to be called 
" the truth." But I prefer the term law, to relations. 
Freedom being perfect accord with the law, we can- 
not be free unless we know the law. Even ignorant 
violation of law is followed by penalty. I may not 
know that fire will burn, but that ignorance will not 
free me from the penalty of pain if I put my hand 
in the blaze. But a knowledge of that law makes 
me practically free from it, for then I have no desire 
to put my hand in the flames. We cannot be free 
without the truth, and alas, that our hearts should be 
indifferent and even hostile to N the truth, like the 
Pharisees who disputed with Christ, rejecting scorn- 
fully the truth which alone could make them free, 
and hugging the chains of their bondage. 

How shall we gain the knowledge of God and of 
our relations to him? The sun says, "It is not in 
me ; " the earth answers, " It is not in me ; " and the 
soul declares, " It is not in me." Where can we find 
the truth we seek ? In chemical action ? in spectrum 
analysis ? gravitation ? insects and trilobites ? Think 
it out for yourselves ; think of all the sources 
whence man has sought truth in all the ages, and 
you will find but one answer to that great question 
of questions — what is truth ? A voice comes to us 
from the Judean hills, "lam the truth," and lo, the 
great problem is solved. " God manifest in the 
flesh " — manifest — made evident that man may 
know him. Broken and fragmentary revelations 
of him are seen in the songs of the psalmist and 
the visions of prophets ; still more broken and frag- 
mentary in the world around us ; but in Christ, 



76 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

God is manifested, so that Jesus can say, " If ye had 
known me, ye should have known my Father also." 
" I am the way, the truth, and the life : no man com- 
eth unto the Father but byme." Lofty words these, 
coming from the carpenter of Nazareth, but none too 
high, as thousands, who have found him all these, can 
testify. u The truth shall make you free," and 
because he is the truth, he goes on to say, " If the 
Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free 
indeed." 

" I am the truth." In Christ is God known in all 
his great attributes that concern us. How divine 
love and truth, holiness and long-suffering shine forth 
in every word and act of Jesus ! Divine power and 
justice and sovereignty stand hand in hand with love 
and mercy round the cross of Calvary. God is mani- 
fest in the flesh to human eyes — no longer a God that 
hideth himself, but seen as clearly as he can be 
revealed to the eyes of fallen men. In Jesus stand 
revealed the relations binding God and man. Christ 
has broken down the dungeon walls that Satan had 
built around us and has let in the light of heaven. 
And he has done more. He comes, and laying his 
hands on our chains, says, " I will free you and open 
your eyes. No other can deliver you. If ye believe 
not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." Shall 
we hug our chains when freedom is offered us ? Shall 
we love darkness when that voice calls us to the 
light ? 

Freedom is perfect harmony between our souls and 
God's law. Jesus is the truth that shows us God and 
gives us hearts to love him ; teaches us our relations 
to him and enables us to live in harmony with those 
relations. " If the Son therefore shall make you 
free, ye shall be free indeed." The choice is before 
you : the bondage of Satan or the liberty of the sons 
of God ; slaves of sin or freemen in Christ Jesus ; 
which will you choose ? No other choice is open to 



TRUTH A LIBERATOR 77 

you. You cannot say, " I will be free, but not in 
Christ. " We cannot free ourselves, else the Son 
would never have come to free us. Adam was free 
as the angels till he sinned, but we can be made free 
only by the truth as it is in Jesus. 

" If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall 
be free indeed. n He frees us when we repent and 
believe in him. Then we stand before God justified, 
because we are washed in his blood and clothed in 
his righteousness. But we have not yet the whole of 
freedom, because although no longer the slaves of 
sin, we are not wholly free from sin. We are like 
babes in our weakness and ignorance, needing the 
care of tutors for our growth and training. We need 
the law to guide us in the pathway to perfect free- 
dom. "If ye continue in my words, ye shall know 
the truth, and the truth shall make you free." " Con- 
tinue in my words," this is the message to us, breth- 
ren. We are to meditate upon Christ's words, trans- 
mute them into action and make them part of our 
very being. So shall we grow into a manhood that 
needs no law, because the will of God shall have 
become part of our very existence. 

" The truth shall make you free." From how 
many things does the truth free us ! From all fear 
of harm — what can we fear when the everlasting 
arms are under us, and our Father's hand is lead- 
ing us ? From wearing care — he careth for us, even 
for the number of hairs on our heads. From the 
pollution of sin, so hard to bear despite our bra- 
vado, and from the remorse whose sting teaches us 
what we know of the undying worm. Pain and sor- 
row and sin, perfect freedom knows nothing of these, 
and the truth leads us into that freedom, which means 
all wisdom, all joy, all peace, and all holiness. We 
realize this more and more as we follow the truth. 
The way to love God with all our hearts is to act out 
what little love we have for him, by striving to please 



78 



THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 



him in everything, and we will find our love growing 
deeper and truer every day. Our freedom will in- 
crease with our love, till we enter upon the perfect 
liberty of that inheritance we shall have with our 
Elder Brother, the noblest inheritance God himself 
could prepare, containing all that omniscience could 
devise and omnipotence provide of joy and glory. 
And over against that inheritance, for our choosing — 
what ? " The wages of sin " — which " is death. " 



William Warren Landrum, eldest son of Rev. Dr. Syl- 
vanus Landrum, was born at Macon, Ga., January 18, 1853 ; 
converted and baptized when thirteen years of age, and called 
to preach at eighteen years of age, and licensed by the First 
Church of Savannah, Ga.; educated at Mercer University, Macon, 
Ga., and Brown University, Providence, R. I., where he gradu- 
ated as bachelor of arts in 1872, and at the Southern Baptist 
Theological Seminary. Ordained at Jefferson, Tex., May, 1874, 
and pastor at Shreveport, La., for nearly two years; at First 
Church, Augusta, Ga., for nearly six years ; and has been pastor 
of the Second Church, Richmond, Va. , for nearly thirteen years; 
was given the degree of D. D. by Washington and Lee University 
in 1885. His high character, affable manner, and pulpit gifts, 
have made him universally popular, both with the laity and 
clergy. 




\V. W. Lanukum, D. D. 






1 



I 









I a new 









VI 

ALL 1 

BY W. W. LANDRUM, D. D. 

" All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, 
and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the 
Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things what- 
soever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
the end of the world." Matt. 28 : 18, 19, 20. 

PECULIAR interest belongs to what we know to 
be the last. On a mountain in Galilee out 
Ivord gave his last command. Already he had dis- 
charged the duties of his redemptive mission. As 
prophet he had preached the scheme of God's uni- 
versal love to sinners ; as priest he had offered him- 
self as a propitiation for the sins of the world by the 
sacrifice on the cross ; as king he had triumphed over 
sin, death, and the grave. And now, surrounded by 
those who had caught his spirit and been saved by 
his power, Jesus Christ, before ascending to the right 
hand of God's throne, delivered to them his last great 
commission. That great commission is a compen- 
dium of the disciples' doctrine and duty. If we con- 
sider the apostles as soldiers, it was their " marching 
orders" ; if we regard them as statesmen, starting to 
found a new and spiritual republic, it was their con- 
stitution ; if they were philanthropists, it was their 
economy of universal beneficence ; if physicians, the 
sovereign remedy for sick souls ; if teachers, their 
text-book ; if preachers, the subject-matter of all 

1 Preached in the First Baptist Church, Washington, D. C, during the 
Jubilee Session of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

79 



80 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

their discourses, directed to disclose God's character, 
the Saviour's love, and the soul's supreme good. 

Accept this great commission as the Magna Charta 
of Christianity and you accept Christianity in its 
wholeness. Reject it, or any part of it, and you 
reject Christianity's fundamental principle. Modify 
it in any respect and you cannot claim to be a faithful 
disciple of him who issued the commission with un- 
speakable solemnity at the moment when he took his 
leave of the world. 

Analyze the text and you will see four great " alls " 
loom up like mountain peaks. They furnish us with 
suitable observatories from which we may look out 
upon the world over which we are to go and to 
which the " glorious gospel of the blessed God " 
must be preached. Let us ascend these heights one 
by one. 

i. "All power (authority) " is the first mountain. 
U A11 authority," says Christ, " is given unto me in 
heaven and in earth." This authority is the basis of 
the subsequent command. Without such authority 
the command would be presumptuous. 

It is the highest human authority — that of Jesus 
Christ, " all authority on earth." No one questions 
that in the time of Tiberius there was a man called 
Jesus who was put to death by the Roman procu- 
rator, Pontius Pilate, and whose doctrines spread 
rapidly throughout the Roman world. The Gospels 
are not our only source of information ; if they had 
never been written we should know that much from 
Tacitus, Suetonius, Juvenal, Adrian, Pliny, and 
others. Christ's historical reality is not only con- 
ceded by all, but his moral perfection by all with- 
out, as well as within, the circle of his followers. 
Christ's supremacy as a teacher of spiritual truth is 
gladly acknowledged by foe and by friend. Many 
who profess to be in doubt as to whether he is divine 



ALL 8l 

or human are willing to follow him as an ethical 
leader. Their cry is : 

If Jesus Christ is a man, 

And only a man, I say- 
That of all mankind I will cleave to him, 

And to him will cleave alway. 

If Jesus Christ is a God, 

And the only God, I swear 
I will follow him through heaven and hell, 

The earth, the sea, and the air. 

Beyond question the character of Jesus presented 
by the evangelists is a verity, a sublime reality. 
Amid the world's sin a perfect life has been lived; 
unto the world's doubt an authoritative voice has 
spoken ; upon the world's darkness a heavenly light 
has shone, For these reasons Jesus Christ is the 
highest authority on earth. 

He is also the highest authority in heaven. Repeat- 
edly he made claims, be it said in all reverence, which, 
if he was not divine, seem to be nothing short of blas- 
phemy. Christ, as we know, declared himself to be 
King of a heavenly kingdom ; he exercised the di- 
vine right to forgive sins ; he claimed a right to the 
supreme love of the race, demanding an affection 
stronger than the love of father or mother, wife or 
child ; he asserted in the text that he possessed super- 
human power, indeed that he sways the sceptre of uni- 
versal empire ; he predicted that, though he should 
die and be buried, he would rise again and ascend to 
heaven, but would return at the end of the age and 
finally judge all nations. Surely only a superhuman 
character could sustain such claims ! And yet pre- 
cisely such claims Christ vindicated. By a life of 
spotless purity and transcendent power he so com- 
pletely vindicated such claims that the most enlight- 
ened peoples have for nineteen centuries . pronounced 
him u God manifest in the flesh." Step by step the 



82 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

honest inquirer may ascend the mountain of author- 
ity, until, from its summit gazing up into heaven, he 
exclaims : u In the beginning was the Word, and the 
Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . All 
things were made by him ; and without him was not 
anything made that was made." Like the author 
of the Hebrews, he will shout out to the Eternal 
Son : c ' Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever ; a 
sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy king- 
dom. . . Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the 
foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the 
works of thine hands." 

II. Naturally enough we pass from the authority 
of the Commander to the great command he gave. 
44 All authority" issues an order which is to be de- 
livered to " all nations." " Go ye, therefore, and teach 
all nations." " The field is the world." 

i. Prophecy called Christ "the desire of all na- 
tions." The superscription on the. cross was written 
in the three great languages of the world — Greek, 
Latin, and Hebrew — that all nations might know 
their regal Redeemer. Christ died in the fullness of 
time. The kingdom of heaven was inaugurated in 
the world only when " all nations," after long ages, 
had been made ready for it. That preparation re- 
quired three conditions : First, a universal language 
in which the gospel could be preached and written ; 
second, a universal government which would suffer 
missionaries to travel with reasonable protection ; 
third, a universal people expecting a further revelation 
from God. The Greeks gave the universal language ; 
the Romans furnished the universal government ; the 
Jews, scattered by persecution into every land, were 
the expectant people waiting for the Messiah's com- 
ing. All nations were prepared by spiritual, intellec- 
tual, and physical conditions for the only religion that 
is adapted to save and civilize all nations. 

2. Apostles were commissioned to go to "all na- 



ALL 83 

tions." True, they did not do so at once ; they learned 
the lesson of world-wide evangelization slowly. Chris- 
tian in heart they were Jews in spirit. They were 
naturally narrow and bigoted ; they hated foreigners ; 
in a word they were human, and the best of men are 
but men at best. The apostles did not leave Jerusa- 
lem till persecution thrust them forth ; they did not 
go out among the Gentiles until years afterward the 
Holy Spirit moved upon the church at Antioch to 
dispatch Paul and Barnabas to the heathen. They 
found it difficult to be foreign missionaries. Before 
we condemn them too harshly let us remember our- 
selves. How long, alas, did it take to enlarge some 
of us into the foreign missionary spirit? When one 
is first converted he longs, in the gladness of his ex- 
perience of pardon and peace, to lead some one else 
to the Saviour. Every one of us felt in that way. 
Naturally the young convert begins work among his 
friends. He believes in congregational missions, the 
duty of preaching the gospel to the lost of his con- 
gregation. As he grows in grace his heart enlarges. 
He hears of a city missionary society embracing mem- 
bers from several congregations and he comes to be- 
lieve in city missions. As his renewed nature ex- 
pands under the influence of the Holy Spirit he 
considers his State, with its multitudes of unrepent- 
ant and unsaved sinners, and comes to believe in 
State missions. L,ater he looks out upon his country, 
upon America, the nation of destiny, the asylum for 
the oppressed of all nations and gives in his allegi- 
ance to home missions. By an inevitable law he 
must go farther. He reads : " God hath made of one 
blood all the nations of the earth " ; " Christ is the 
propitiation, not for our sins only but for the sins of 
the whole world " ; Christ's command is, " Teach all 
nations." Thus, by a process of holy evolution, the 
growing believer comes, sometimes all too slowly, to 
champion the cause of foreign missions. It is not 



84 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

possible for any intelligent disciple to oppose foreign 
missions who will remember that God loves all na- 
tions, that Christ died for all nations, that the gospel 
is adapted to all nations, that Christ commanded it to 
be preached to all nations, and that many in all 
nations have believed the gospel and turned unto the 
L,ord. 

3. All nations are open to the preaching of the 
gospel to-day. 

During this century the barriers which separated 
more than eight hundred million heathen from the 
rescuing power of the gospel have broken down. 
Before this century obstacles, almost insurmountable, 
interposed between the churches and the fulfillment of 
Christ's command. Obstacles to approach confronted 
the missionary. China was walled about; Japan's 
ports were sealed ; India was held by an English com- 
pany hostile to missions ; Africa was impenetrable, 
even to the explorer; the isles of the sea were peopled 
with cannibals, more to be dreaded than the devouring 
waves of the angry ocean. Obstacles to intercourse 
with the heathen blocked the way. Languages, 
strange and hard to master, hindered all communica- 
tion. At least sixty languages were without any 
literature, lexicon, grammar, or even written charac- 
ters. Travel and transportation were slow and un- 
satisfactory. Women secluded within harems could 
not be reached ; children and youth shunned the 
"foreign devil," as the missionary was called. Ob- 
stacles to impression were multitudinous and moun- 
tainous. Some races, like the Chinese and Japanese, 
claimed mental superiority to the missionaries and 
would not listen to them. Other races seemed to be 
on too low a plane of morality to be lifted up even 
by the lever of the gospel. In some quarters they 
were dumb beasts for shamelessness and wild beasts 
for brutality and ferocity, not only dehumanized, but 
actually demonized. 



AIX 85 

Once more, there were obstacles to action. Heathen 
peoples were prejudiced against all Christians because 
of the disgraceful practices and iniquities of certain 
so-called Christian countries. England forced opium 
on China at the cannon's mouth. Vessels carried 
missionaries to Africa from Christian lands, and then 
bore back to those lands stolen slaves. The Sand- 
wich Islanders caught the consuming leprosy of lust 
from the merchant ships of Christian countries. 
North American Indians took the infection of drunken- 
ness from contact with our " superior civilization.'' 
Missionaries were hated by the heathen as drunkards, 
licentious, mercenary, polluting, because the majority 
who came among them from Christian countries, 
sailors, soldiers, traders, and tourists, were such. 

Now, thank God, these obstacles of approach, of in- 
tercourse, of impression, and of action, are removed as 
completely as if they were thrown into the sea. 
" India is now," in the words of another, u a starry fir- 
mament, sparkling with missionary stations." Turkey 
is planted with churches from the Golden Horn to 
the Tigris and Euphrates. Japan strides in her 
" seven league boots" toward Christian civilization. 
Polynesia's thousand church spires point like fingers 
to the sky. Africa is stretching forth her hands 
toward heaven. China, the very Gibraltar of heath- 
enism, is crumbling down slowly but surely. 

4. Souls, moreover, have been won to Christ among 
all nations. Converts abroad, in fact, exceed in num- 
ber those of ministers in this country. These con- 
verts show as high a type of character, as self-sacrific- 
ing a spirit, as enlarged liberality, as obtains among 
brethren here at home. Compare, if you wish, the 
gifts and graces of the church at Canton, China, or at 
Ongole, India, with any church in Richmond or 
Baltimore or Washington. Tested in any way mis- 
sions abroad are more successful than missions at 
home, and the nations of the heathen are producing 



86 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

better and more numerous fruits than this elect 
nation, which we are pleased to call the pride and 
glory of the whole earth. 

III. " All authority" issues to "all nations," "all 
commands," " Teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you." 

The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is intensive as 
well as extensive. The gospel reaches the whole 
man ; it has a message for his body, his mind, his 
spirit, and it blesses him in all his relations, human 
and divine. The commands it lays upon men are for 
their highest well-being on earth and in heaven, for 
time and for eternity. These commands are moral 
commands, evangelical commands, positive com- 
mands. Moral commands embrace the decalogue ; 
these, when obeyed, are the bases of the civilization 
which the gospel offers the world. Evangelical com- 
mands are these which concern our relations to Christ. 
They require us to repent of our sins before God and 
to put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. 
Positive commands relate to the ordinances of Christ, 
which exist only because of his appointment. Bap- 
tism is a positive command ; the observance of the 
Lord's Supper is a positive command. Christ in- 
structs us to teach all nations all commands. 

Baptists dare not do less. Romanism may teach 
the heathen, more or less perfectly, Christ's moral 
ordinances ; Protestantism may teach the heathen 
Christ's evangelical commands ; Baptists, if true to 
their principles, must hold themselves responsible for 
teaching all Christ's commands, positive as well as 
moral and evangelical. For that reason, our mission 
as a people is to Protestant lands, to papal lands, to 
pagan lands. To pagans we must carry the moral, 
the evangelical, and positive commands ; to Roman- 
ists we must carry the evangelical and positive com- 
mands ; to Protestants we must carry the positive 
ordinances of our Lord Jesus Christ. 



ALL 87 

And we must teach all these commands to every 
single convert in the u all nations." If Baptists have 
one peculiarity more pronounced than any other, it is 
the stress they lay upon the worth of a single soul. 
Baptists are individualistic. The church exists for 
the individual, and not the individual for the church. 
Presbyterians are rather familistic ; the family they 
are disposed to regard as a religious unit. Metho- 
dists are tribalistic ; the Conference is the religious 
unit. Episcopalians are nationalistic ; they have a 
State Church in England, and once had it here. 
Baptists are individualistic. They go forth to preach 
to every individual soul the broadest and deepest con- 
ceptions of personal responsibility. Starting with the 
doctrine of soul liberty, the right of private judg- 
ment, they commend personal repentance, personal 
faith, personal baptism, personal communion with the 
Saviour at the Lord's Supper, personal fidelity to all 
the moral, evangelical, and positive commands of the 
Lord Jesus Christ 

IV. It only remains to add the last of the four 
great "alls" of the great commission — "All days." 
"Lo, I am with you alway," or, as it is more cor- 
rectly, " all days," " even unto the end of the world." 

Do we really believe this ? Where, let me ask, is 
our Lord Jesus to-day? That is a pertinent and 
pressing question. Does it not seem that in the 
minds of many professing disciples he is shut up in 
the pages of the New Testament, a mere doctrine to 
be believed ? In the view of others he is dying on 
the cross still, a great historic fact to be treasured ; as 
understood by others, Christ is up in heaven, an ad- 
vocate, an intercessor ; yet others intently look toward 
the east for his speedy second coming. 

But where does Christ declare himself to be ? On 
the earth. How on the earth ? In the presence and 
power of the Holy Spirit. With whom is he on the 
earth ? With all those who go forth to teach all na- 



88 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

tions the saving truth of his holy word. And why 
with his missionaries and ministers ? That the ex- 
cellency of the power of the gospel may be of God 
and not of men. Christ indeed, does not delegate 
power. "All power is given unto me," he said, 
" and lo, I am with you all days, even unto the end of 
the age." 

Oh, my brethren, this is our only reliance as we 
go forth to the pacific conquest of the world, even 
the presence of the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipres- 
ent Spirit of Christ. It is that Spirit which con- 
victs the guilty soul of sin, and it is that Spirit which 
leads the convicted soul to the I,amb of God which 
taketh away the sin of the world. An English 
preacher asked some British soldiers : " If Queen 
Victoria were to issue a proclamation, and placing it 
in the hands of her army and navy, were to say, ' Go 
ye into all the world and proclaim it to every crea- 
ture,' how long do you think it would take to do it ? " 
One of these brave fellows, accustomed to obey orders 
without hesitation or delay and at peril of life, re- 
plied : "Well, I think we could manage it in about 
eighteen months." Possibly they could. To deliver 
a message of salvation to all is not so difficult a mat- 
ter. Suppose we ask this question : "" How long 
would it take the army and navy of England, how 
long would it take the thousands of missionaries, all 
working together, to regenerate one single sou] ? ' ' 
Army and navy combined, all the missionaries and 
the ministers of the world acting in concert, could not 
accomplish the task throughout all the cycles of 
eternity. Regenerating power is not in man. It is 
" not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith 
the Lord." 

We may need more men, we do need more men to 
preach the gospel ; we need more and better " ma- 
chinery," churches, schools, hospitals, books, tracts; 
we need more money that we may equip more men 



ALL 89 

and build more chapels ; but the chief need is not 
men, machinery, or money. Our supreme want is 
more faith in him who said : u Lo, I am with you 
all the days, even unto the end of the age." When- 
ever we have failed, at home or abroad, the secret of 
every failure to save souls is due to our unbelief in 
the Holy Ghost. When Garibaldi had been defeated 
at Rome he issued his immortal appeal : " Soldiers, I 
have nothing to offer you but cold and hunger, rags 
and hardship. L,et him who loves his country follow 
me." Instantly thousands of the youth of Italy 
sprang to arms and moved to victory. Garibaldi in- 
spired his spirit into his men ; Garibaldi was ever with 
his men as the communication of patriotism and 
courage. A greater than Garibaldi is with us. Oh, 
if we were all filled with the Spirit of Christ, if we 
felt his consuming passion for souls, if we were in- 
spired by his high purpose of saving all men, the 
weakest among us would dare and do until the con- 
quest of the world was won. 

All power is in the hands of the Spirit of Christ. 
Dr. David Gregg illustrates Holy Ghost power in this 
way. An army is drawn up before a granite fort 
which it intends to batter down. We ask the gen- 
eral : "How are you going to level these great 
stones ? " He points to a cannon ball and says : " By 
this. M But there is no power in that. If all the 
men in the army should hurl it against the fort, it 
would make but slight impression, if any. The gen- 
eral replies : " True ; but look at the cannon." Well, 
but there is no power in that. A child may ride upon 
that cannon ; a bird may perch in its mouth ; it is a 
machine and nothing more " But look," says the 
general, "at the powder." No power there. A spar- 
row may peck at it, an infant may spill it. Yet, given 
this powerless ball and powerless cannon and power- 
less powder and a spark of fire — what then ? The 
spark of fire touches that powder. In the twinkling 



90 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

of an eye it is a flash of lightning ; that ball be- 
comes a thunderbolt which smites the fort as if it had 
been hurled from heaven, and its granite walls lie in 
ruins. China is that fort, or India or Africa. There 
is no power in the Bible as a mere book — it is an in- 
strument simply ; no power in the missionary — he is 
but a frail man. But put back of the book and the 
man the fire of the Holy Spirit and then God's om- 
nipotence is brought to bear. The missionary's ser- 
mon is the cannon ball, the missionary's soul is the 
cannon, the missionary's zeal is the powder, but the 
Spirit of Christ is the all essential spark of fire which 
will cause the truth of the gospel to force its way 
through the citadel of pagan superstition and sin : 
u All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth, 
go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them, 
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you : and lo, I am 
with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 
Amen. 



J. B. Hawthorne is a native of Alabama. He was converted 
at a very early age. After graduation from Howard College, 
Ala., he practised law in Mobile for a few years, but becoming 
convinced of a call to preach the gospel, he abandoned the pro- 
fession in which he was already achieving success and distinc- 
tion, re-entered Howard College and took a course in theology. 
Shortly after his ordination to the work of the ministry, he was 
invited to return to Mobile as pastor of the Second Baptist 
Church. Here he established a reputation as preacher and pas- 
tor which each subsequent pastorate has confirmed and increased. 
Selma, Ala., Franklin Square Baptist Church, Baltimore, First 
Baptist Church, Albany, N. Y., Broadway Baptist Church, 
Louisville, Ky., Tabernacle Baptist Church, New York City, 
First Baptist Church, Montgomery, Ala., First Baptist Church, 
Richmond, Va., have enjoyed his ministry. He is now pastor 
of the First Baptist Church, Atlanta, Ga., where large audiences 
wait upon his preaching, and his power and popularity are un- 
abating. 



/ 







f. E. Hawthorne, D. D. 



VII 

THE PRE-EMINENT NAME 1 

BY J. B. HAWTHORNE, D. D. 

" Thou shalt call his name Jesus ; for he shall save his people from their 
sins." Matt. I : 21. 

VERIIyY there is something in a name. It may 
and often does represent a mighty factor in the 
life of the world. Back of all the world's history 
there were names that inspired hnman courage, pur- 
pose, and enterprise. The names of great men have 
become synonyms for the principles and institutions 
to which they devoted their lives. They have become 
slogans, watchwords, and battle-cries, to arouse the 
enthusiasm of men and to nerve them for heroic 
action in the midst of great crises. When the old 
Greek orators saw signs of dullness and inattention in 
their audiences, they could arouse every man before 
them and raise enthusiasm to the highest pitch by 
simply pausing for a moment, and then shouting, 
" Marathon ! Marathon ! V Since the day you first 
read the history of that struggle which culminated in 
the independence of the American Colonies and the 
establishment of the American Republic, the name 
of Washington has stood in your mind for patriotism, 
and the mention of it has stimulated your patriotic 
sentiment. That name has ever been a favorite 
countersign with American soldiers, and the use of it 
has helped many a weary, shivering picket to stand 
at his post and watch the stars. 

1 Preached at the First Baptist Church, Washington, D. C, during the 
Jubilee Session of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

91 



92 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

The day I was born my father named me for Board- 
man, that dauntless hero who preceded Judson in 
missionary work among the Karens. When I was 
old enough I read the history of the struggles, suffer- 
ings, and achievements of that brave young man. 
His name, which I so unworthily bear, has been to my 
soul an abiding and unfailing inspiration. L,uther, 
Calvin, Knox, Bunyan, and Carey were long ago 
gathered to their fathers ; but the power of their 
names is still invoked wherever Christian workmen 
need a higher courage, a steadier purpose, and a more 
fervent zeal. 

But there is a name above every name — a name 
which is reconstructing our disordered planet, re- 
creating our fallen and ruined humanity, and which 
stands everywhere for the sweetest charities of earth, 
the synonym of the purest life, and the symbol of the 
highest civilization ; a name which carries healing to 
the wounded, rest to the weary, pardon to the guilty, 
and salvation to the lost ; a name which makes the 
dark gateway of the tomb the portal to a temple 
resplendent with the glory of celestial light, where 
the music of golden harps by angels' fingers touched 
is ineffable and eternal. 

In the shock which followed the entrance of sin 
into the world man fell away from God, and heaven 
and earth went asunder. The sinful soul is diseased, 
polluted, fettered, imprisoned and hid away from God. 
Its deepest problem is how to be cured, cleansed, 
freed, and restored to the divine presence and favor. 
The solution of this problem is in the matchless and 
adorable name which we are to consider this morn- 
ing: Jesus — Saviour. 

" There is none other name under heaven given 
among men whereby we must be saved. " Jesus him- 
self stood up among men and boldly declared that he 
was the one and only way by which lost men could 
get back to God. 



THE PRE-EMINENT NAME 93 

But in what sense is he the Saviour of men ? A 
mistake here is radical and fatal. Is he simply the 
ideal man, showing by his own manner of living how 
other men ought to live? If he is no more than 
that, he is not the Saviour that we need. He is indeed 
the ideal man. His life was perfect. It was abso- 
lutely without spot or blemish. And he does require 
us to follow him in the sense of reproducing his 
virtues. But if he is only the ideal man, and does no 
more for us than show us how to live, he does not 
compass our necessities. Setting before us an exam- 
ple of right living, and inviting, entreating, and com- 
manding us to follow it, will not save us from our 
sins and restore us to the favor of God. 

Nor is he the Saviour of men in the sense that he 
shows them the way of salvation. If he is only a 
a law-giver, or a teacher of divine truth, or a finger- 
board to direct us in the way of righteousness, he is 
insufficient for our needs. The man who shows me 
the way to New York is not himself the way. The 
person who merely teaches me the truth is not him- 
self the truth. And if Jesus is only a teacher of the 
way of salvation he is not himself salvation. It is 
true that man is sadly and fearfully ignorant both 
of himself and of the infinite God to whom he must 
give account for the deeds done in the body ; and it 
is also true that by coming to Christ he can be 
relieved of this ignorance. But if Jesus is only a 
pedagogue or schoolmaster, he does not touch the 
deepest necessities of man's condition. Such a view 
of him may improve a man's morals, and elevate him 
somewhat in other respects, but it can never save him 
from the power and consequences of sin. Jesus is 
himself the salvation which he taught, and which he 
commissioned his disciples to preach. He is the 
wisdom, the grace, the mercy, and the power that 
save men from their sins. The saved man is not he 
who attempts merely to copy the virtues of Jesus nor 



94 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

he who merely accepts his doctrines, but the man 
who trusts him, as the little child trusts its mother 
when it lies helpless and peaceful in her arms. 

No man can have a true conception and apprecia- 
tion of the mission of Jesus until he comprehends 
man's condition and necessities as a sinner. Why- 
does that hired infidel go through the land outraging 
not only Christian feeling but common decency, by 
making sport of the question, " What must I do to be 
saved?" It is because the Satanic power to which 
he has sold his birthright has blinded him to the 
nature of sin and the condition of the sinner. If his 
worse than Judas Iscariot baseness and cowardice 
and his demoniacal blasphemy have not already 
placed him in the category of those who have com- 
mitted what John calls u the sin unto death," and he 
could have just one glimpse into the fathomless abyss 
of his own iniquity, his cry of distress would surpass 
any wail of anguish that has ever vibrated the air of 
this globe, and his entreaties for divine mercy and 
salvation would exceed any prayer that convicted 
publican or harlot ever made. 

Sin is no idle fancy or innocent hallucination with 
which circus clowns, street venders of patent medi- 
cines, low comedians, and such peripatetic infidel 
buffoons as I have just referred to, may with impu- 
nity amuse themselves and the frivolous people who 
listen to them. Sin is the most terrible fact in the 
universe of God. It is the intolerable burden of a 
soul that is destined to live forever. It is a black 
darkness which invests man's whole moral being, and 
conceals from his vision everything that belongs to 
the highest and grandest realms of realities. It is a 
disease that is converting him into a lump of rotten- 
ness and a feast for u the worm that dieth not." It 
is a fiend that has bound him hand and foot, and 
that is dragging him down and down to a region of 
infernal flames. From such a power man can be 



THE PRE-EMINENT NAME 95 

delivered only by the personal intervention and act 
of a personal God of infinite mercy and might. 

The sense of siu is not something into which we, 
who live in a Christian country, have been educated. 
It is a universal experience, and inheres in the very 
nature of man. Wordsworth voiced the truth when 
he said, "The recognition of the fact of universal 
wrong-doing is perfectly independent of Christian 
teaching." Every man who has even a general 
acquaintance with the world's history, knows that 
every ancient religion and philosophy grappled with 
the problem of sin. All the records that we have of 
the races and tribes which have dwelt upon the earth 
show that men have ever been conscious of sin, and 
that sin is a stern fact of human nature which no 
people have ever been able to ignore or reason away. 
Men have never ceased to think and talk and write 
about it, because in every generation and in every 
region of the earth it has shadowed their pathway 
and burdened their hearts. 

Ingersoll would have you believe that all of this 
talk about sin and its consequences originated with 
Christianity. How absurd ! Buddhism antedates 
Christianity by nearly six centuries, and Buddhism 
is as full of the doctrine of sin as is the religion of 
Christ. Homer, the father of poetry, sang of sin and 
the wretchedness it had made. Sophocles, as he 
thought of the misery born of human depravity, 
declared that the best thing for man was death. 
Whether you read Greek poetry, Greek history, or 
Greek philosophy, you find not only lamentations 
over the woes of man, but a distinct recognition of 
the fact that all man's woes are traceable to human 
sin. 

Sin figures in all the great poems and dramas that 
men have written. A semi-infidel critic has had the 
candor to confess that " a guileless hero would be no 
hero for a drama." Eliminate the part which sin 



96 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

plays in Homer's immortal u Iliad," and how much 
of it would be left? Take the thieves, hypocrites, 
liars, adulterers, conspirators, and murderers out of 
Shakespeare's tragedies, and who would go to a 
theatre to see one of them performed? Who was 
Macbeth ? A murderer. And what was the inspira- 
tion of his challenge to the horrible shadow and 
unreal mockery that haunted him in his hours of 
seclusion ? It was a conscience stained with blood 
and aching with remorse. 

There is in every man's bosom a tribunal which 
pronounces judgment on his conduct and by which 
he is made to know that sin is a terrible reality. Or 
as Tennyson has expressed it : 

He ever bears about 

A silent court of justice in his breast, 

Himself the judge and jury, 

And himself the prisoner at the bar. 

The Bible says, that " Fools make a mock of sin." 
Mr. Ingersoll calls a conviction of sin, " a nightmare 
— the result of too much appetite and too little diges- 
tion." It is not possible to conceive of a more un- 
mitigated absurdity. Surely it was something more 
real than nightmare which David felt when he 
thought of his double crime of adultery and murder, 
and cried, " Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, 
and done this evil in thy sight." Surely it was some- 
thing more serious than nightmare which made Judas 
throw down the price of his infamy in the temple 
and exclaim, " I have sinned in that I have betrayed 
the innocent blood." Surely it was more than a 
nightmare that inspired the prayer of the dying 
thief, u Ivord, remember me when thou comest into 
thy kingdom." Surely it was something more seri- 
ous than melancholy, born of indigestion, that af- 
flicted a more honest infidel than Ingersoll, when he 
cried, ' 4 My principles have poisoned my friends, my 



^^m 



THE PRE-EMINENT NAME 97 

extravagance has beggared my child, and my unkind- 
ness has murdered my wife! O God! is there yet 
another hell ? But hell itself will be a refuge if it 
only hide me from thy face." 

Among the many abominably false " isms " to which 
even some people who call themselves Christians 
have committed themselves, is one which declares 
that, " Evil is a blessing to mankind ; a means selected 
from the infinite resources for our development; a 
ladder whereby we climb to moral heights yet unat- 
tained." Whether you call this pantheism, or 
Hegeliauism, or Universalism, or monism, or Chris- 
tian science, it is a plain and unmistakable denial of 
the word of God. That word forbids us in the most 
positive and intelligible terms to call evil good. It 
represents Satan as a distinct personality, as the 
father of lies, as the source of evil, and as the enemy 
of God and man. It teaches us not that sin elevates, 
but that it degrades; not that it leads to happiness, 
but to misery. 

The doctrine of the Bible on this subject is sup- 
ported by the everyday observations and experiences 
of men and by the common sense of the world. No 
philosophy in the universe can convince the average 
man that a participation in the vices, debaucheries, 
and deviltries of bar-rooms and gambling dens, is in- 
cluded in the divine plan by which men are to be dis- 
ciplined into virtue and developed into the likeness 
of God. To the end of time the common sense of 
the world will support the Bible in saying that, " He 
that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a com- 
panion of fools shall be destroyed," and that "evil 
communications corrupt good manners.'' 

The application of this false philosophy would be 
the repeal of all laws forbidding vice and crime, the 
abolition of all agencies for the prevention of evil, 
and the glorification of all that is earthy, sensual, and 
devilish, I know of no reason why men and women 

1 



98 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

who advocate such a system should not be sent to the 
lunatic asylum, except that they are too absurd to be 
seriously harmful. 

Man is a complete and distinct entity. He is not a 
part of the Divine Being. What he does is not God's 
act, but his own. He is a distinct moral entity. He 
knows good from evil. He has the power to love the 
one and hate the other, and to choose the one and re- 
ject the other. In the exercise of this power he makes 
his glory or his shame, his happiness or his wretched- 
ness, his meetness for heaven or his fitness for hell. 
Sin then is the will of the individual man asserting 
itself against the will of God. It is the deliberate 
and willful rebellion of the creature against the Crea- 
tor. In its final analysis it is selfishness pure and 
simple. It is a man's defiant assertion of his purpose 
to be lord and monarch of himself. It is his absolute 
repudiation of any higher law than his own will. It 
is self-damnation — a man's own choice of " everlasting 
destruction from the presence of God, and from the 
glory of his power." 

Here then the world is confronted with the most 
fearful of all realities — sin — God's enemy and man's 
destroyer. That reality makes the gravest problem 
with which human thought has ever grappled. Here 
is a disease that has laid its destroying hand upon 
every fibre of man's moral being. How can it be 
cured ? Here are immortal spirits bound with infer- 
nal fetters. How can these shackles be removed? 
Here is loathsomeness worse than the rottenness 
of the grave. How can it be cleansed ? Here are 
beings in communion with fiends. How can they 
be transformed and lifted into fellowship with the 
angels? Here is the great temple of humanity in 
ruins. Who can rebuild it, and make the glory of 
the latter house greater than the former ? Here are 
two worlds — earth and heaven — separated by a great 
gulf of darkness and horror. Who will span it with 



THE PRE-EMINENT NAME 99 

an available highway, so that angels may come to us 
and that we may go to them ? 

All these questions are but different forms of the 
great question which the apostles answered on the 
day of Pentecost : " What must I do to be saved ?" 
When Mr. Ingersoll gets upon the platform and sports 
with that problem he mocks the wail of a perishing 
world, dehumanizes himself, and speaks a language 
akin to the dialect of devils. 

How can we get rid of sin ? That is man's su- 
preme question. The history of the world shows that 
there has never been a time when men did not be- 
lieve that some remedy for sin had been provided. 
Abel expressed this belief when he kindled the first 
altar fire and made an offering to the Lord. Noah 
expressed it in the sacrifice which he made on leav- 
ing the ark. Abraham believed it and taught it to 
his children. Moses expressed it in the institution of 
the symbols and ceremonies of the tabernacle ; and 
the prophets of Israel proclaimed it with almost se- 
raphic zeal. The whole pagan world has ever cher- 
ished the belief that there has been provided some 
remedy for sin. It has always had its altars and sac- 
rifices ; and not knowing the true and living God, it 
has made its appeal to gods of its own creation. It 
has stretched out its hands into the darkness and laid 
hold on a thousand delusions. 

Let us thank God there is a cure for sin. " There 
is a balm in Gilead, and a Physician there." There 
is an eye to pity and an arm to save. The angel of 
the Lord announced that remedy when he said to Jo- 
seph, concerning the child to which Mary should give 
birth, " And thou shalt call his name Jesus : for he 
shall save his people from their sins." A great mul- 
titude of the heavenly host proclaimed it when they 
hovered over the birth place of that Divine child and 
sang, u Glory to God in the highest, and on earth 
peace, good will toward men." John the Baptist saw 



IOO THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

it when on the banks of the Jordan he pointed the 
multitude to the form of a Galilean stranger, and said : 
" Behold the L,amb of God which taketh away the sin 
of the world." The people saw it who followed that 
man of Galilee from place to place and witnessed his 
mighty works. The poor distressed harlot saw it 
when Jesus said to her, "Thy sins are forgiven." 
The dying thief saw it and felt it when he heard 
those gracious words, " To-day shalt thou be with 
me in paradise." Three thousand people at Jeru- 
salem saw it and felt it when they gladly received the 
message of salvation from the lips of the apostles. 
It was seen by Lydia when she attended unto the 
things spoken by Paul. It thrilled the soul of the 
Philippian jailer when he " rejoiced in God with all 
his house. n It was known in Macedonia, Greece, and 
Rome, and wherever the apostles and their co-laborers 
told the story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. 
It is known and felt to-day by the millions of happy 
men and women who bear aloft the banner of the 
Cross and sing the coronation hymn. The sun in his 
course shines upon no land where there is not a sacra- 
mental host rending the air, and making the welkin 
ring with the rapturous shout, " Messiah is come, and 
his people are free." 

" He shall save his people." The point to which I 
would give special emphasis in closing is, that the 
Saviour of men is not a doctrine, not an ordinance, 
not a church, but a person — a divine-human person. 
The Word that was in the beginning with God and 
was God, was made flesh and dwelt among us in the 
person of the man Christ Jesus. Salvation is in him, 
and not in anything he ever said, nor in anything 
that he commanded others to say. The doctrines of 
the Bible are only finger-boards that point us to 
Christ. You may accept every one of them, and con- 
tend for them with a martyr's zeal, and then die in 
your sins. 



THE PRE-KMINKNT NAME IOI 

A man may know the saving power of Christ with- 
out being able to define any of the great fundamental 
doctrines of the gospel. Doubtless the woman who 
bathed the Master's feet with her tears and wiped 
them with the hairs of her head, knew scarcely any- 
thing of his doctrine. But she knew him. She be- 
lieved on him, and in believing felt his saving power. 
That demoniac of Gadara, when he went down to his 
home to tell the story of his rescue, knew nothing 
about the system of truth which Jesus taught, but he 
knew him ; he knew that he was a Divine Redeemer, 
and that much he could declare to others with the ut- 
most clearness and zeal. 

The woman of Samaria to whom he gave to drink 
of the water of life, ran into the city and told the 
story. What was the story ? Something about the 
doctrine that he taught? No, for of that she was 
utterly ignorant. It was something about him, and 
about the redemption which he had bestowed upon 
her. Many a child has known Jesus and his salva- 
tion before it had read one-third of the New Testa- 
ment. 

Oh, my brethren, I do know that there is a vital 
difference between believing on the Divine Christ and 
believing in a creed. I do know that the former 
brings salvation to the soul and the latter does not. 
I do know also that the faith of many in this day 
reaches no higher than a creed and never touches the 
person of the Living Redeemer. 

The power of redemption is not lodged in theories 
of the atonement, nor in definitions of regeneration, 
nor in Confessions of Faith, nor even in the Bible as 
such. This may seem to you extravagance of speech, 
but I cannot believe that it is. There is a condition 
of things about us to-day which warrants me in say- 
ing all this and even more. There are no words of 
reprobation too strong and severe for that conception 
of Christianity so common in our time which re- 



102 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

duces it to a mere pedagogic arrangement, and puts 
it on a level with every human system of philosophy 
and ethics. 

If every church creed, and even every copy of the 
Bible, were burned to ashes, Christ and his salvation 
would remain the same. He would still sit on his 
mediatorial throne, and save his people from their 
sins. The doctrines of the Bible are divine, and yet 
as I have already said, they are only finger-boards to 
point us to Christ. You can believe them and be 
lost ; but if you lay the hand of faith on that living 
divine personality whose name is Jesus, you shall be 
instantly and eternally saved from your sins ; your 
transgressions of divine law shall be forgiven ; your 
whole moral being shall be unfettered, cleansed, and 
reconstructed ; every barrier which separates you from 
God shall be removed ; the Lord will make you his 
tabernacle, and will be the comfort and joy of your 
life ; in the power of his might you shall have the 
mastery of every spiritual foe ; and on the stepping- 
stones of conquered difficulties you shall rise day by 
day into a diviner life and a more glorious freedom. 
Coming to the margin of death's cold and sullen 
stream, its dark waters shall divide and make you a 
passage to the shining shore. As you approach " the 
city that hath foundations whose builder and maker 
is God," the gates of pearl shall be lifted high, and 
as you step upon the golden pavement within those 
jasper walls, the same benignant Jesus who saved you 
from your sins will greet you with every token of 
welcome, robe you with resplendent beauty, crown 
you with imperishable honor, and conduct you to a 
seat at his own right hand, high above all princi- 
palities and powers, where you will sit and reign as 
long as immortality endures. 

When we think of the sublime significance of this 
name which is above every name, and of the unspeak- 
able grace and ineffable beauty of the adorable being 






THE PRE-EMINENT NAME IO3 

who bears it, we are lifted into sympathy with him 
who wrote : 

Oh, could I speak the matchless worth, 
Oh, could I sound the glories forth 

Which in my Saviour shine, 
I'd soar and touch the heavenly strings, 
And vie with Gabriel while he sings, 

In notes almost divine. 

If present contemplations of that best and most 
glorious of all beings are so fruitful of bliss, who can 
conceive of the blessedness of an abiding place in his 
immediate and visible presence ? 

The delightful day will come 

When our dear Lord will call us home, 

And we shall see his face. 



VIII 



SKLF-HEROISM 1 



BY H. ALLEN TUPPER, JR., D. D. 

"Be strong, and quit yourselves like men." I Sam. 4 : 9. 

IT is what is in a thing that determines its value. 
The rough rock of the mountain, the wi 1 d wave 
of the sea, the vaporous veil of the sky shut from the 
eye, mines, oceans, worlds of wealth. The invisible is 
more potent and more permanent than the visible; 
the intangible is richer and more real than the tangi- 
ble. Fame is more fashionable than foundation, in 
an age when life finds its sufficiency on the surface of 
things. To the question: "What is he worth?" 
the answer is invariably given from a materialistic 
point of view. The value of a man is estimated by 
the dollars or dirt that he owns or that own him. 
He may be poverty-stricken in the lack of those pos- 
sessions that honor true manhood ; but if he has 
built and owns a golden calf, the people are ready to 
fall down and worship. Money is monarch over the 
multitude of men, for they have been educated, by 
the spirit of the times, to think that under its royal 
rule tbey enter the Golden Age of life. Does it not 
change a cot into a castle? Does it not put a crest 
on the carriage? Does it not cover, with a golden 
cloth, the humble origin of grandpa, or even grandpa's 
grandson? Does it not bring us into the courts of 
kings ? Does it not change the hazy horizon of life 

1 Preached in the Seventh Baptist Church, Baltimore, Md., before the 
" Commercial Tourist Association.' ' 

104 



H. A. r l upper, Jr., D. D. 



H, Allen Tupper, Jr., is the son of Rev. H. A. Tupper, d. d., 
late Secretary of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern 
Baptist Convention. His mother was sister to Rev. J. P. 
Boyce, d. d., ll.d., for years president of the Southern Baptist 
Theological Seminary and the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. 
Tupper, Jr., was born in Washington, Ga., June 22, 1856. At 
the age of thirteen he entered Charleston College, S. C, and 
after a course in this institution he became an alumnus of Rich- 
mond College and the University of Virginia. In May, 1879, 
he took the full diploma from the Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary. He has been successively pastor of the Harrodsburg, 
Ky., Baptist Church, Broadway Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky., 
and of the Seventh Baptist Church, Baltimore, Md. These have 
all been important pastorates, and in each of them his labors 
have been signally blessed. At this writing Dr. Tupper is pre- 
paring for a tour around the world. Dr. Tupper received his 
degree of d. d. from Georgetown College, Ky. He married 
Miss Marie L. Pender, a niece of Mrs. Dr. J. B. Jeter. 



SELF-HEROISM 105 

into a ring of rubies? But the outward is delusive 
rather than conclusive. The world of sense and 
sound holds not within its lap the best or brightest 
prizes of life. Within himself each one has a world 
to discover, to explore, and to conquer ; and in this 
hidden realm, as the metal lies beneath the mass of 
the mountain, wealth below the waves, the stars be- 
hind the shifting sheen of the sky, may be found the 
true treasury of man's life. Root, and not fruit, is the 
source and secret of life ; the one is inner life, the other 
outer life ; the one may be the fountain of life, while 
the other may be in the embrace of death. Strength 
and stability are secured by seeking below the sur- 
face. He who is not, while lie moves through the 
years, engaged in character-building, by diving be- 
neath the driftwood of to-day's current, and grasping 
the granite of immutable principles, is one whose fall 
is inevitable. He may be supported by stocks and 
bloated by bonds ; his position may lend him crutches, 
and his frail frame may be lifted by tender, loving 
hands upon a pinnacle of power ; but, by so doing, 
these only hasten a downfall as certain as the law of 
gravitation. Greatness, as well as growth, moves 
from w r ithin, without ; never from without, within. 
It is from the core to the bark, and not from the bark 
to the core, that yonder tree finds its expansion and 
power. A man's real self is within, not without ; 
and any permanent progress must move from the 
center toward the circumference of his life. " His 
value must not be estimated by what is on him or 
around him or in his possession. Above position, 
above wealth, above culture, above genius even, is 
nobility of character. The fundamental question in 
human life is not one of possession or of attainment 
or of standing, but of being." The aristocracy of 
character includes the members of the real nobility 
of earth. They give value and significance to their 
possessions and surroundings ; but these are powerless 



106 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

to give value to them. Such are they who fight the 
bravest battles and win the most valiant victories. 

Real glory 
Springs from the silent conquest of ourselves, 
And without that, the conqueror is naught 
But the first slave. 

My sermon this evening is dedicated to these vic- 
tors ; and my subject is their namesake. " Self- 
Heroism " : The heroism of self-examination ; the 
heroism of self-preparation ; the heroism of self-con- 
centration ; the heroism of self-perpetuation. 

I. THE HEROISM OF SELF-EXAMINATION. 

Nothing is insignificant. There is a divine mean- 
ing in the existence of everything. To doubt this is 
to doubt the intelligence of the One by whom all 
things exist and consist. There are no alternates nor 
duplicates in creation ; and the Creator knows no 
surplus in his works. As the greenness of no two 
blades of grass is the same, as the light from no two 
planets is alike, as the weight of no two pebbles on 
the beach is equal, so each life is the working out of 
individual principles and possibilities. No life can 
infringe upon another's right of way in living ; for 
the legitimate property of no two lives lies along ex- 
actly the same track. Each life is a monopoly in 
itself; for to each has been given the sole permission 
to exercise certain exclusive powers. 

What is the meaning of my life? This is the 
supreme question for each to ask. Why have I been 
given an existence, with endowments peculiarly its 
own ? Where is my position and what is my mission 
in this complex life about me ? The Author of my 
being has made a mistake, or my life is of tremendous 
significance. His intention in giving me life is of 
momentous importance to me, and the knowledge of 
this problem should be my ceaseless pursuit. Intro- 



SELF-HKROISM 107 

spection partakes of the heroic. It is much less diffi- 
cult and much more delightful for us to look upon 
and live by the visible than the invisible ; and it de- 
mands higher heroism to master the science of self 
than to explore and to know the wealth of the world 
about us. " Distance lends enchantment to the 
view" in spiritual as well as in physical vision. To 
view and review another's life, to analyze it, to weigh 
it, to point out the weakness of it, to know how it 
ought and ought not to be spent, to examine into the 
cause of its fall and failure, is a very easy job for most 
of us to work out to our perfect satisfaction. But to 
reverse the eye of the microscope, and carefully scru- 
tinize self is quite another matter. " Know thyself" 
is one of the most useful and comprehensive precepts 
in the whole moral system. Thales, the prince of 
philosophers, is said to have been the author of it ; 
and he declares, " For a man to know himself is the 
hardest task he can master." Ignorance of this 
knowledge has proved to be the reef upon which 
many of the conquerors of the world have been 
wrecked. They knew others ; but did not know 
themselves. They mastered others ; but could not 
master themselves. They guided others ; but failed 
to guide themselves. The fields upon which they 
were victors lay beyond themselves ; the fields upon 
which they were victims lay within themselves ; and 
they were losers in the real battle of life. If self- 
examination were an applied science, I venture the 
opinion that some who are now in the pulpit would 
be behind the plow ; some who are at the bar would be 
in the blacksmith shop ; some who are in Congress 
would be in the cornfield ; some who sit in faculties 
would lie in fossil-beds ; and others, with heretofore 
undiscovered El Dorados within, would awake to their 
native right and riches and put honor upon lives 
divinely gifted. Whoever you are, wherever you 
are, be brave enough, be honest enough, to get inti- 



108 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

mately and accurately acquainted with yourself ; and 
with Jean Paul Richter be enabled, at last, to say : 
".I have made as much out of myself as could be 
made of the stuff, and no one can require more." 

II. THE HEROISM OF SELF-PREPARATION. 

" Every one has two educations," Gibbon tells us, 
" one which he receives from others, and one, more 
important, which he gives to himself." We are debt- 
ors, it is true, to all the past ; and in beginning life we 
enter upon the labor of ages. u There is not a phi- 
losopher who has not thought for us ; not a martyr for 
truth nor a defender of human rights who has not 
bled for us." The past has indeed bequeathed us a 
rich inheritance ; and what we are and what we know 
depend largely upon this wealth. But the highest 
education and the noblest preparation for life's duties 
and responsibilities come not from the process of re- 
ception or absorption. The popular idea of educa- 
tion seems to be, the art of allowing others to do as 
much for us as we have the capacity of receiving. 
" He is not capable of receiving an education," is a 
suggestive expression. True education is self-prep- 
aration. It is not a question of pouring in, but of 
drawing out. Not so much the effect of something 
on you, as your effect on something. It does not cre- 
ate ; but it takes creation for granted. It must find 
something within you, or it brings nothing out of 
you. It would lead you to recognize and honor your 
inner self rather than your outer succor. It con- 
verts your possibilities into practical powers. " I ac- 
cept without qualification," says James Anthony 
Froude, " the first principle of our forefathers, that 
every boy born in the world should be put in the 
way of maintaining himself in honest independence. 
No education which does not make this its first aim 
is worth anything at all. There are three ways of 
living: by working, by begging, or by stealing. 



SELF-HEROISM IO9 

Those who do not work, disguise it in whatever pretty 
language we please, are doing one of the other two. 
The practical necessities must take precedence of the 
intellectual. A man, if he would not be a mendicant 
or a rogue, must learn to stand upright upon his own 
feet, to respect himself, to be independent of charity 
or accident." The richer a nature the harder and 
slower its self-preparation and development. Two 
boys were in the same class in the Edinburgh Gram- 
mar school. John was quick, smart, and a dux ; Walter 
was slow, dull, and a dolt. In due time'John became 
Bailie John, of Hunter Square ; and Walter became 
Sir Walter Scott, of the World. Bailie John's self- 
preparation was over within a few years ; Sir Walter 
was planning his greatest works after he was forty- 
six years of age. Carlyle was forty-two when he 
published the " French Revolution " ; and the first 
two volumes of his " Frederick the Great " did not 
appear until he was sixty-three and the last until he 
was sixty-nine. Swift was sixty-nine when he gave 
to the world " Gulliver's Travels " and conceived the 
plot only two years before. Macaulay's " History of 
England " came from the publishers when he was 
fifty-five; Milton's u Paradise Lost" when he was 
fifty-four ; Bacon's " Novum Organum " when he was 
fifty-nine ; and Cowper, Defoe, and George Eliot wrote 
best after they were two-score and ten. After many 
years of heroic self-preparation, Longfellow, Prescott, 
Motley, Racine, and Victor Hugo gave us their ripest 
and richest fruit. To-day the noblest figure in Europe 
stands erect under the snows of eighty winters ; and be- 
cause of his rigid, righteous self-preparation through 
all these years, the " grand old man " is the freshest 
in thought and the maturest in wisdom of all who 
meet in the parliaments of men. Patient preparation 
is permanent power. If the mulberry leaf were im- 
patient, it would never become satin. In an age that 
lacks composure, men are apt to mature too quickly 

K 



110 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

and decay too soon. Reserved power should ever be 
greater than spent power. An act is never great un- 
less there is a greater something behind it. What a 
man is should be greater than what he does. The 
master must be greater than the masterpiece. Self- 
preparation is more important than self-projection. 

III. THE HEROISM OF SELF-CONCENTRATION. 

The rays of the sun, spread like a cloth of gold 
over the floor of the autumn woodland, do not scorch 
the fallen and scattered leaves ; but let these arrows 
of light concentrate upon the crystal face of yonder 
bit of glass, and they become a rod of fire whose 
magic turns the leaf into ashes. A life often fails to 
make a lasting impression because of its disposition 
to spread itself. To shine and play over a wide ex- 
panse of territory is much more beautiful and bril- 
liant than to turn all the weight and fire of your life 
in a given direction and upon a specified spot ; by the 
one you may dazzle and delight during to-day, by 
the other you may leave the imprint of a golden in- 
fluence after the sun is set. Persevering concentra- 
tion converts weakness into power, spreads fertility 
over the barren landscape, bids the choicest fruits and 
flowers spring up and flourish in the desert abode of 
thistles and thorns, and opens to poverty the world's 
wealth. Men whose lives were not distracted, but 
whose life-work was contracted, have impressed the 
age in which they lived, and have brought things to 
pass. To attempt everything and to accomplish noth- 
ing is a fatal folly, encouraged too often by our edu- 
cational system and by our professional and commer- 
cial life. " The objects of knowledge have multiplied 
beyond the powers of the strongest mind to keep pace 
with them all. We must choose among them, and 
the only reasonable guide to choice in such matters is 
utility. The old saying : 4 Non multa sed multum ' 
becomes every day more pressingly true." If our 



SELF-HEROISM III 

lives are to mean the most we must take one line and 
rigidly and sternly confine our energies to it. Never 
lift the weight of your head and heart and hand from a 
thing until you have become its master. The higher 
and more unselfish the end toward which we would 
direct our lives, the greater is the demand for intense 
and ceaseless concentration of our noblest powers. 
The pursuit of your purpose may lead you over 
rugged mountains, across rolling seas, through fierce 
flames ; but others have conquered these and so may 
we. Clearly does history echo the truth that the life 
worth living is the life worth suffering for ; and the 
end proposed by a human being may put honor upon 
self-dedication and self-sacrifice. 

Oh, fear not in a world like this, 
And thou shalt know ere long, 

Know how sublime a thing it is 
To suffer and be strong. 

On the skirts of the town of St. Andrews, Scotland, 
in the sixteenth century, a slave in a French galley 
was one morning bending wearily over his oar. For 
nineteen long months he had done his work faith- 
fully in the galleys ; and, unused to such labor, his 
body was wasted, but his spirit was unbroken. " The 
day was breaking, and rising out of the gray waters, 
a line of cliffs, the white houses of a town, and a 
church tower were visible. A companion touched 
him, pointed to the shore, and asked him if he knew 
it. 'Yes,' he answered, 4 I know it well. I see the 
steeple of that place where God opened my mouth in 
public to his glory ; and I know, how weak soever I 
now appear, I shall not depart out of this life till my 
tongue glorify his name in the same place.' " That 
galley slave was John Knox ; and we know that he 
came back to that same place, and from it and 
through him the glory of God went forth over the 
hills of Scotland and filled the land with new light 



112 the southern baptist pulpit 

and life. Many, to-day, who slumber in nameless 
graves or wander through the tortures of wasted lives, 
are those upon whom nature has poured her richest 
gifts, but whose powers are dissipated rather than 
directed. What we fondly call genius is often but 
the child of application. Focus your best powers 
upon the details of your life-work. In explaining 
his work upon a statue to a visitor at his studio, 
Michael Angelo said : vC I have retouched this part — 
polished that — softened this feature — brought out that 
muscle — given some expression to this lip, and more 
energy to that limb." " But these are trifles," re- 
marked the visitor. "It may be so," replied the 
sculptor, " but recollect that trifles make perfection, 
and perfection is no trifle." The eye must long be 
fixed upon the ideal before the hand can touch it. 
Like the fabled bird in the oriental legend which 
slept on the wing, learn to rest in your labor, but 
never rest from your labor. Contemplate ! Concen- 
trate ! Consecrate ! 

If what shone afar so grand, 
Turn to nothing in thy hand, 
On again ! the virtue lies 
In the struggle, not the prize. 

IV. THE HEROISM OF SELF-PERPETUATION. 

The truth has been urged that, " the great men of 
the earth are the shadowy men, who, having lived 
and died, now live again and forever through their 
undying deeds. Thus living, though their footfalls 
are heard no more, their voices are louder than the 
thunder, and unceasing as the flow of tides or air," 
Truly great and good men are. not half living when 
they are alive ! Their best and truest life on earth, 
comes after they walk no longer on earth. The 
prophets of the Most High God seemed almost use- 
less in their time ; but when you look at the life they 
have lived since, they appear to be the world's pilots, 



SKIyF-HEROISM 113 

guiding amidst the perils of the ages. Their enemies 
could kill them then ; but the arrow from no archer's 
bow can strike them now. Martin Luther was 
mighty when he lived. But the shadowy Luther is 
mightier than a regiment of fleshly Luthers. When 
he was on earth, he in some sense asked the pope's 
leave to be ; he asked the stream and the wheat to 
give him sustenance for a day ; but now that his 
body is dead, now that that rubbish is out of the way, 
he asks no leave of pope or elector or emperor, but is 
himself a ruler of thought and a deathless defender 
of truth. Truth, like a seed, does not bear its fruit 
in a day ; the richer the truth and more precious the 
seed, the slower the full fruition. Great principles, 
like great bodies, move slowly. Twenty centuries 
elapsed before the principle of the conic sections, set 
forth by Apollonius Pergseus, was made the basis of 
the science of astronomy. Every life in this church 
to-night is enriched by the mellow fruit of seed — 
truths planted by unknown hands in the dim, distant 
past. A man's self becomes a part of the truth to 
which his life is wedded, and as this truth, which he 
introduced or merely advocated, passes beyond the 
limit of his visible existence and takes its endless 
course through the ages, the strongest and best part 
of the man's self advances with it, and is perpetuated, 
it may be, cycles of centuries after his bones are 
rotten and his name is forgotten. The great men of 
the past never lived so really and intensely as they do 
to-day. The momentum of their words and work has 
been added to by the accumulated force of other 
words and other works ; and, unconscious to them- 
selves and to the mass of mankind who are their 
beneficiaries, their lives are increasingly forceful as 
the years come and go. Each life is a contribution 
to history ; but few lives have their historians. Only 
one Johnson ever had a Boswell. Heroic lives are 
oftentimes written anonymously upon the tablets of 



114 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

time ; and coming ages never recall by name their 
greatest benefactors. Iyive so that your life shall not 
bear its best fruit until after you have passed from 
the ground in which the seed was sown. Strive not 
for present praise, but future fruition. Earnestly 
covet that all men may be your heirs. The fame of 
your name may soon perish ; but what you are, the 
sum-total made up of the items of your beliefs, pur- 
poses, affections, tastes, and habits, you can bequeath 
to men who shall never know or be known by you. 
Some are dead while they are living ; others are liv- 
ing while they are dead. Think much of your post- 
mortem life among men. Make the earth richer and 
the sky brighter by having lived on the one and 
under the other. Maintain an uncompromising 
enmity toward the false, an invincible friendship 
toward the true. Cultivate a practical faith in the 
living God. Accept the Christ as your Redeemer 
and ideal. This fertilizes the whole field of man's 
being, and is the hidden spring of self-heroism. It 
makes man's business safer, his scholarship wiser, 
his life manlier, his joy brighter ; and when the veil 
is lifted, he shall stand erect in the undimmed light 
of a glorified manhood. 



G. A. Nunnally was born on his father's farm in Walton 
County, Ga. , and attended country schools until he was eleven 
years of age, and was then sent first to an academy in Madison 
and afterward to one in Marion. He graduated from the State 
University at Athens, taking one of the highest honors of his class. 
He also enjoys the distinction of graduating at an earlier age 
than any other student at this university. He was teacher, and 
pastor of country and village churches for several years, and 
then filled successful pastorates at Rome, Ga., and at Eufaula, 
Ala. ; organized the church at Anniston, Ala. , and laid the foun- 
dation and secured the funds to build the present elegant house 
of worship at that place. Was elected president of Mercer 
University, and after presiding over this institution for nearly four 
years, accepted a call to his present pastorate at the Central 
Baptist Church, Memphis, Tenn. 




G. A. Nunnally, D. D. 



IX 

THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST 1 

BY G. A. NUNNALLY, D. D. 

" What think ye of Christ ? whose son is he ? " Matt. 22 : 42. 

MAN is a thinking animal. God treats him as a 
rational being. All revelation and accounta- 
bility, all vice and virtue, all rewards and punish- 
ments are based upon the idea that man is capable of 
thought. Grand themes are presented for his medi- 
tation in government, in nature, and in revelation. 
The expansion of an idea often produces a great life. 
Thoughts develop and decide and declare character. 
They kindle desires and control conduct and fix 
habits. They measure the man and settle the stand- 
ing and determine the destiny of the individual. "As 
a man thinketh in his heart so is he." The greater 
the theme, the greater the force of thought. " What 
think ye of Christ ?" is the all-important question to 
the human soul. You must think, and your thoughts 
will determine your relation to him. As the mariner 
scans the sky and discerns his relative position to the 
star in the north, and thereby learns his latitude and 
longitude, so you turn the telescope of thought to- 
ward Jesus and learn your relative position to the 
Star in the East, and discover the latitude and longi- 
tude of your soul. And knowing this, we can tell 
whether we are on safe waters or near the breakers — 
whether or not we are on the way to a haven and a 

1 Preached in Massachusetts Avenue Methodist Church, Washington, 
D. C, during the Jubilee Session of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

"5 



Il6 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

port that we desire to reach. Thoughts are the bell- 
buoys that ring the danger signals, or are the beacon 
lights along the shore that guide into the harbor. 

God by his revelation and by his providence and by 
his creation and by the movements of man, would 
provoke us to think of Christ. The first disciples 
had the prophets and the unique character and power- 
ful presence and miraculous display of the Wonder- 
worker to make them think of Christ. In addition 
to these, we have the testimony of the apostles and 
the continuous, abiding, and growing miracle of his 
living kingdom, and the transformations and forward 
movements of eighteen centuries to arrest our atten- 
tion and fix our thoughts on Christ. Every power of 
man has been subsidized and utilized in the world's 
evangelization. The achievements of genius, quick- 
ened by thoughts of him, have all become evangels 
to declare him to mankind. The galleries of art, 
from Florence to Washington, are filled with paint- 
ings — visions transferred to canvas, which men, in- 
spired by Christ or by scenes in his life, have por- 
trayed. The brush of the artist, from Raphael to 
Gustave Dore, has been busy through the centuries 
depicting the world's thoughts of Christ. The sculp- 
tor's chisel, from Michael Angelo to Madame Howe, 
has been at work giving form and body in brass and 
bronze and marble to the conceptions they had of 
the Man of Galilee. Musicians, from Ambrosius to 
Wagner, have made the cathedral and church and 
chapel and concert hall and field and fireside resonant 
with melodies, upon whose waves there floated into 
the minds of choir and congregation thoughts on the 
life and love and light and liberty of Christ. The 
author's pen, in book and magazine and paper and 
tract, in poem and prose, in broken language and 
polished words, has been inditing for eighteen hun- 
dred years thoughts of Christ. Great libraries have 
been filled with ponderous or less pretentious publi- 



THE DIVINITY OK JESUS CHRIST 117 

cations, produced by the best minds of two hemi- 
spheres presenting the claims and character of Christ. 
Unnumbered tongues, burning with live coals from off 
the altar, have been speaking in pulpit and grove and 
tent — tongues from Paul to Spurgeon, from Jerusa- 
lem to London, from Ephesus to Paris, from Corinth 
to New York, from Rome to Washington. All along 
the line of the march of humanity this voice has 
kept pace with the procession of the generations, 
and in eloquence has thundered or in broken sen- 
tences has stammered thoughts of Christ. Indeed, so 
fully and vividly has he been presented to the human 
mind — tongues of canvas, tongues of stone, tongues 
of melody, tongues of fire everywhere declaring him 
— it seems strange that any intellect should be devoid 
of thought and conviction concerning him. In the 
midst of such a display, in the light of such a revela- 
tion, in the face of such cumulative evidence, and in 
the presence of such monumental testimony, " What 
do you think of Christ?" 

" Whose son is he ? " is the question of this life, of 
this age and of every age, of this country and of all 
countries. It rises above all the questions that try 
the wisdom of statesmen. The relations of capital 
and labor, of what is anarchy and what is liberty, are 
questions of minor moment. The problems that per- 
plex the professor in his laboratory and defy all solu- 
tion by the test-tube and crucible and alembic, are 
insignificant when compared to this : " Whose son is 
he?" A little fame or gain or promotion maybe 
won in this life by the proper solution of the ques- 
tions of government and finance and science ; but eter- 
nal issues depend upon the correct answer to that 
question propounded by the Saviour, which silenced 
all caviling for the rest of his ministry, " Whose son 
is he?" 

This question becomes more fearful when we re- 
member that every man must answer it for himself. 



Il8 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

There is a Sanhedrin in every community, and every 
man at some time in his life belongs to this high tri- 
bunal. There is a Pilate in every breast, and a judg- 
ment hall everywhere. Jesus Christ is always on 
trial. The investigation never ceases. An appeal is 
always being taken from one generation to the next. 
Ancestral decisions will not, cannot be accepted by 
the tribunal of posterity. The consensus of man- 
kind does not relieve any man of individual and per- 
sonal responsibility. Face to face every man must be 
brought with this question, " Whose son is he?" 
Your reply will determine the estimate you place 
upon his atonement, the faith you have in his prom- 
ises, and the share you expect in his inheritance. 

Then let us convene a court, impanel a jury, ex- 
amine the witnesses, and try to reach the truth. You 
be the judge and jury, and I will introduce the wit- 
nesses and plead the cause of him who, I believe, is 
my Advocate to-day with the Father. 

The first witness we would bring before the court 
is Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, the Man of 
Galilee, that One who was born in Bethlehem and 
died on Calvary. Mark you, it is the man, Christ 
Jesus, not the Son of God, whom we are about to 
place on the stand. But before calling him to testify, 
allow me to say that this historic person has been 
and is still regarded by all men as a man of exceed- 
ingly high character. His friends and his foes agree 
that he is truthful and reliable and trustworthy. 
They all hold that he is humble and pure and blame- 
less, that he is a perfect man, a model man, a fault- 
less example worthy the imitation of all men. The 
witness is on the stand, and is ready for examination. 

The first question we ask is : " Jesus, what do you 
claim for yourself more than any good man might 
claim for himself? " 

He replies : " i I am the light of the world ' (John 
8 : 12) ; 4 1 am the bread of life ' (John 6 : 35) ; I said : 



THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST Iig 

4 1 am the way, the truth, and the life ' (John 14 : 6) ; 
I said : 4 1 am the vine, ye are the branches ' (John 
15 : 5) ; I said again : l Without me ye can do noth- 
ing' (John 15 : 5) ; I declared: 'I am the resurrec- 
tion'" (John 11 : 25). 

How silly and puerile and repulsive would such 
expressions seem if spoken of one and by one who is 
simply human. But the man Jesus is truthful ; he 
would not set up a claim which could not be sub- 
stantiated. 

Again we ask: "What relations do you claim to 
exist between you and the Father? " 

He replies , " I assert that I am the 'only begotten 
Son ' (John 3 : 16) ; I declare that, ' I and the Father 
are one ' (John 10 : 30), and ' He that hath seen me 
hath seen the Father' " (John 14 : 9). 

Would this meek and humble and truthful Naza- 
rene claim such divine kinship and identity if it did 
not really exist ? Such pretensions are not compati- 
ble with his established humility unless the declar- 
ation be admitted as true. 

But we ask further: "Jesus, what promises have 
you made that would be utterly worthless and only 
tantalizing mockeries if you were only a man ? " 

He replies, " I promised : ' Whosoever drinketh of 
the water which I shall give him shall never thirst' 
(John 4 : 14) ; I spoke out so that all the world might 
hear : l Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy 
laden and I will give you rest' (Matt. 11 : 28) ; I 
promised : c Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name 
that will I do ' (John 14 : 13) ; I stood up before my 
disciples and said : 4 1 go to prepare a place for you, 
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come 
again and take you to myself (John 14 : 2, 3) ; and 
just before taking my departure from them I declared 
that, ' All power is given unto me in heaven and 
earth . . . and lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
the end of the world.' " 



120 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

Would Jesus, an honorable man, — and all men say 
he was the soul of honor, — would Jesus, as a truthful, 
reliable man, as a merciful man, make promises that 
he could not fulfill and excite expectations he could 
not meet? And can any one who is only a man do 
what he promised to do? The clearing houses of 
earth cannot handle such checks ; only divinity can 
cash such drafts. We must reject the promises and 
condemn the man, or accept them and admit the 
Sonship of Christ. 

But before dismissing this witness, we ask: "Jesus, 
have you any witnesses to testify in your behalf? " 

He replies: u ' Search the Scriptures, . . . they are 
they which testify of me,' and Moses and the prophets 
wrote concerning me. Here are my disciples ; ' they 
are of age, ask them. ' Demons also said to me, 4 1 
know thee who thou art,' and my Father 4 beareth 
witness of me,' " 

Time will not allow the introduction of all these 
witnesses, but we will take a word or two from some 
of them. David had special advantages, was often 
in communion with God and was " a man after God's 
own heart.' ' He is a truthful and competent witness. 

We ask : " David, what have you to say touching 
the question, Whose Son is Christ?" 

He replies : ' ' One day I was lifted up and was 
striking a grand song of praise from my harp, and I 
heard the Father say : [ Thou art my Son ; this day 
have I begotten thee ' " (Ps. 2 : 7). 

Let us wake up Isaiah, the old gospel prophet : 
" Tell us, Isaiah, what have you to say on this 
question ? " 

He replies : " I wrote : ( Unto us a child is born, 
unto us a son is given : and the government shall be 
upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called 
Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, the ever- 
lasting Father, The Prince of Peace ' " (Isa. 9 : 6). 

Isaiah wrote this at the risk of his life, and it is 



THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST 121 

not probable that he would have declared a fraudu- 
lent vision with such danger impending. 

Daniel, the victim of Nebuchadnezzar and the 
hero of the lions' den, unmoved by royal wrath and 
unswerved by gods of gold and unfrightened by 
flaming furnace, what is your testimony? 

His answer comes in clearest tones, above the 
roar of lion and rage of king : " Lo, I see four men 
loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they 
have no hurt ; and the form of the fourth is like the 
Son of God n (Dan. 3 : 25). 

But let us consult men of later date who were eye- 
witnesses. Call in that brave man, John the Baptist, 
whose loyalty to truth was written in his own blood. 

"John, what do you know of this case? Whose 
Son is Christ ? " 

The voice in the wilderness replies in tones that 
sweep down the Jordan to the sea and across the sea 
to every land and is still echoing over the continents : 
"I said: ( Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh 
away the sin of the world ! , . . and I bare record that 
this is the Son of God ' " (John 1 : 29, 34), 

Here is another witness : " Andrew, what do you 
think about him?" He modestly replies : "I met 
him and knew him, and I ran and told my brother 
Simon, ' We have found the Messias, . . the Christ' " 
(John 1 : 41). 

And Philip speaks : ' c We have found him, of whom 
Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write " (John 

1 : 45)- 

And Nathanael, " an Israelite indeed, in whom is 
no guile," is ready to give his testimony. He de- 
clares, " Rabbi, thou art the Son of God " (John 1 : 

49)- 

The timid and frail but reclaimed woman of Sama- 
ria, — her name is not given in the book, but she met 
him at the well, — what is her opinion? 

She replies : " I was convinced, I forgot everything. 



122 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

I went running and crying aloud, ( Come see a man 
which told me all things thai ever I did ; is not this 
the Christ? ' " She was impressed that she had met 
the Divine One. 

But let us call some good women whose hospitality 
Jesus often enjoyed. " Mary and Martha, tell us 
what you think ? " 

Here is their reply : " In John n it is recorded that 
our brother had been taken sick and had died, and 
we sent for Jesus and said to him when he came, 
4 Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not 
died.' " 

They knew that men could not save him from 
death, but they believed that Jesus was more than 
man and that he could have saved him. 

But let us place some of the apostles on the stand. 
The first one we would call in is that skeptical, 
doubting Thomas. 

We ask : " Thomas, you were often with Christ, 
but was absent at the first meeting after his resurrec- 
tion ; but after a rigid and satisfactory examination 
of the Risen One, what did you say? " 

And Thomas, no longer doubting, but without 
mental reservation or equivocation, says : " I am on 
record in John 20 : 28, and I said then and I repeat it 
now, ( My Lord and my God.' " 

Now we come to Peter, the rock, the converted 
and confirmed disciple, the follower of many experi- 
ences, one of the specially chosen who constituted 
his body guard. " Peter, whose Son is he ? " 

He says : " I assert, ' Thou art the Christ, the Son 
of the living God [ " (Matt. 16 : 16). 

But let us call in some of the evangelists, and we 
ask : " What opportunity did you have for knowing 
and understanding Christ?" 

John speaks for them all : " That which was from 
the beginning, which we have heard, which we have 
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and 



the divinity of jesus christ 123 

our hands have handled, of the Word of life ; . . 
declare we unto you" (1 John 1 : 1-3). 

Well, let us place Matthew, the publican, upon the 
stand. " Tell us, Matthew, in a word, what did you 
think of Christ ?" 

His reply is: "Emmanuel, . . God with us" 
(Matt. 1 : 23). 

Call in Mark. " What is your testimony?" 

He says, " I wrote : 4 The beginning of the gospel 
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.' " 

And John, the beloved disciple, who knew more 
of the inner life, the God-life of Christ than any other 
of the disciples : " What is your testimony ? M 

Here is his reply : 4i In the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 
. . . All things were made by him ; and without him 
was not anything made that was made. . . And the 
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us ; and we 
beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of 
the Father" (John 1 : 1-14). 

Surely John, who was so close to him, could not be 
deceived ; and being so much like him, he could not 
deceive us. 

What more is needed to establish the claims of 
Christ to Divinity? 

But we would have some old documents we would 
place in evidence. In many references the testimony 
is incidental, and is all the stronger because inci- 
dental. Paul's letter to the church at Rome begins 
with these words : " Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, 
called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of 
God . . . concerning his Son, Jesus Christ, . . . de- 
clared to be the Son of God with power," etc. Again, 
in this same letter, he says : " Christ came, who is over 
all, God blessed forever " (Rom. 9 : 5). In Philippians, 
speaking of Christ, he writes : " Who being in the form 
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. " 
And again, " That every tongue should confess that 



124 TH ^ SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." 
In Hebrews, it is written : "God, who at sundry times 
and in divers manners spake in times past unto the 
fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken 
unto us by his Son." 

Paul was a lawyer. He had learned to be careful 
in his words. He was too well skilled in investiga- 
tion to be misled, too well trained in logic to be im- 
posed upon by sophistry, too impassive to be mis- 
guided by sentiment, and too pure and true to stoop 
to deceive and mislead others. His testimony cannot 
be shaken. 

But let us look at another old document. There 
are blood stains upon the pages, for while he wrote 
the author was dying, and among his last words are 
these : " Blessed be the God and Father of our I,ord 
Jesus Christ" (i Peter i : 3). 

In another old, tear-stained scroll in trembling 
handwriting — for John was old and feeble and was 
closing his ministry, and getting ready to stand 
before the judgment seat of Christ — it is written : 
" These are written, that you might believe that 
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God." It is prepos- 
terous to think that this aged servant of God and 
friend of humanity would for a moment, by a single 
word or allusion or suggestion, mislead any man. 
This lover of Christ and God, loved man too well to 
deceive him. Wherever you find John, in Ephesus 
or on Patmos, leaning on the Saviour's bosom or, 
according to tradition, in the caldron of boiling oil, 
running with the ardor of love to the sepulchre or 
bending with benedictions over his children in the 
faith, it matters not where you find him, in the 
church or in the prison, alone or with the multi- 
tude, his testimony is always the same : u This is the 
Son of God." 

But there is another class of witnesses I would in- 
troduce. They are his enemies ; those who rejected 



THE DIVINITY OF JESUS CHRIST 125 

and despised and persecuted him. Let us call from 
the pit of despair some of the demons who are locked 
in prison, and as they know they are beyond the 
reach of hope, they can expect no relief by turning 
State's evidence. 

We ask : " You doomed and damned and lost ones, 
you met Jesus here on earth ; whose Son is he ? " 

And here is the reply of the legions: " Jesus, thou 
Son of the Most High God." And now they believe 
and tremble. 

Again, the thief on the cross, who, guilty of great 
sins, and perhaps at the first joined with his fellow 
in railing, lifted up his voice at the last, and recog- 
nizing in the sufferer at his side the Son of God, ex- 
claimed : " Lord, remember me when thou comest 
into thy kingdom." 

Let us call up the old Roman soldier, whose pro- 
fession cherishes truthfulness as a cardinal virtue. 
What is the testimony of the centurion ? 

Here is his reply : " I was there with others at his 
crucifixion, watching Jesus and those things that were 
done, and I was convinced, and I said, c Truly this was 
the Son of God.'" 

But once more. He has some friends whose testi- 
mony is valuable. Their character and opportunity 
and motives make them unimpeachable. Their 
words were taken for truth by the patriarchs and 
prophets, and history and providence have confirmed 
all that they ever said. I mean the angels, those 
blessed spirits who fell not, neither rebelled, but have 
always served about the throne that is set in truth 
and righteousness. What have they to say as to the 
divinity of Christ ? 

Their reply sweeps down the starry slopes in heav- 
enly melodies : " We sang his praises, 4 Glory to God 
in the highest ' ; and when the Father said, ( Let all 
the angels worship him,' we fell down before him and 
bowed in his presence, and magnified his name." 



126 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

Once more. There is yet one other witness ; one 
who cannot lie ; himself is truth. Sooner the 
heavens would fall and hell become a place of bliss 
than one word of his could fail. Reverently, with 
bowed head, we come before his eternal throne and 
ask : " Heavenly Father, whose Son is Jesus?" 

Be silent, O earth, and hushed every voice in 
heaven, and let the demons keep silence below. Here 
is his reply : " Twice while he was here in the world, 
at his baptism and at his transfiguration, I came down 
through the clouds and declared in tones that rang 
through the universe and across the eternities, ' This 
is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' " 

Surely with such testimony, coming from the lips of 
men and demons, of angels and of God, coming from 
the cradle and the grave, from the earth and the skies, 
emphasized by the bowing heavens and the quaking 
earth, tempered with the love of friends and accentu- 
ated by the hate of foes, surely we are ready to fling 
doubt away and join with that disciple who was re- 
claimed and say, " My Lord and my God." 

Then, inspired by such a faith, let us live in his 
service, die to his glory, and go up and join in the 
song: 

All hail the power of Jesus' name, 

Let angels prostrate fall. 
Bring forth the royal diadem 

And crown him Lord of alL 



A. G. McManaway was born in Bedford Co., Va., August 19, 
1852. He was educated at Richmond College and Southern 
Baptist Theological Seminary. His pastorates have been in 
Blacksburg, Va. , and Lewisburg and Franklinton and Charlotte, 
N. C, and Little Rock, Ark. He is now the Financial Agent and 
Secretary of the faculty of Ouachita Baptist College, Arkadel- 
phia, Ark. Dr. McManaway has been for several years intimately 
and officially identified with the work of the denomination in 
his State and the South, and has always discharged the respon- 
sibilities placed upon him with credit to himself and satisfaction 
to his brethren. 




A. G. McManaway, D. D 



UNANSWERED PRAYERS 

BY A. G. MCMANAWAY, D. D. 

" For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of 
his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my 
prayers ; making request, if by any means now at length I might have a 
prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to 
see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may 
bs established ; that is, that I may be comforted together with you by the 
mutual faith both of you and me. Now I would not have you ignorant, 
brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hith- 
erto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as amoug other 
Gentiles." Rom. I : 9-13. 

I READ to you, in the opening service, from the 
Sermon on the Mount, some of the Saviour's re- 
markable promises concerning prayer. At first glance 
it would seem from these that one might have the elo- 
quence of a Beecher, the wealth of a Vanderbilt, the 
power of a Gladstone, or anything else he might de- 
sire, simply for the asking. Is that what is meant 
when we are told to " Ask, and ye shall receive ; seek, 
and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto 
you"? And if not, in what sense are these prom- 
ises true? Your first answer to my question would 
be that in the very promises themselves the Saviour 
has limited himself to the giving of good gifts. If a 
hungry child, deceived by the pone-like appearance 
of a stone, should ask for it to satisfy his hunger, 
would any earthly father give him stones for bread ? 
Or if, supposing it to be a fish, a child should ask for 
a serpent as a plaything, would any earthly father 
heed such a request ? If we then, being evil, know 
how to give good gifts to our children, and to with- 

127 



128 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

hold from them the things that would harm them, how 
much more will our Heavenly Father give only good 
things to them that pray to him ? So, if I should 
ask for anything that would harm me, or not be for 
my highest good, my Master has kindly promised not 
to bestow it. Then, you would answer me in the 
second place, that through the Apostle James our Lord 
has still further limited his promises to those who do 
not ask amiss. So if I should ask for a good thing, 
and ask in a spirit of selfishness, rebellion, or careless- 
ness, he would not encourage such a spirit by grant- 
ing my petition, but would withhold the gift until I 
came into a better spiritual frame. 

But do these two limitations explain all the multi- 
tude of unanswered prayers? Have you not asked 
for good things, such as an outpouring of God's Spirit, 
an ingathering of souls, the spread of the Redeem- 
er's kingdom, and, so far as you could tell, asked with 
a good motive and in the proper spirit, and yet re- 
ceived no answer ? How are these experiences to be 
reconciled with the promises read? Can you find 
another precept still further limiting the promises so 
as to cover such prayers as these? Or, if you cannot 
find a precept, can you find a Scripture example fur- 
nishing such limitation ? All Scripture is profitable, 
and the example is as authoritative as the precept. 
Let us see if the text does not supply you with the 
example for which you ask. 

The writer was a good man. He could say of God, 
u whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his 
Son." Not only did he turn away from sin when he 
heard that voice on the way to Damascus, but he con- 
secrated himself fully to the work of his new Master. 
In labors, as well as in sufferings, he was more abun- 
dant than any others. In the case we are now consid- 
ering, he was impelled by a good motive. He wanted 
to visit Rome, not that he might satisfy an idle curi- 
osity by a sight of the world's metropolis, nor that he 



UNANSWERED PRAYERS 129 

might secure places of power and profit for himself 
or his friends, but that he might u impart a spirit- 
ual gift," the very thing for which he had been or- 
dained an apostle. Now this good man, under the in- 
fluence of a good motive, had been inserting in each 
one of his prayers a petition that by any means he 
might at length be permitted to accomplish this 
praiseworthy object, and had also added his efforts to 
his prayers, having purposed oftentimes to make the 
journey. But he tells us in the text that prayer and 
efforts alike had proved unavailing, and his purpose 
was still unrealized. What may we learn from such 
a notable example ? 

I. That in addition to the limitations already noted, 
God reserves to himself the right to DELAY the an- 
swers to prayers that may be all right in substance 
and spirit. He did that with Paul, and then in- 
spired him to put the fact on record, that the lesson 
might be handed down to all generations. So too, 
in the cases of Simeon and Anna, who with fastings 
and prayers had waited to see the consolation of Israel ; 
the answer did not come until both were old and ready 
to die. And who has not sympathized with the cry 
of those, who having given their lives in martyrdom 
to the Christ, look up from under his throne for ven- 
geance upon their persecutors, while their prayers are 
unheeded, until at length they are represented as cry- 
ing out, " How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou 
not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell 
on the earth ? " 

But let me hasten to say that God ordains these 
delays, not for his own good, but ours. The text 
furnishes an illustration in point. Paul could not 
see any satisfactory reason for his disappointment, 
but we can. When we remember that his greatest 
letter, the Epistle to the Romans, was occasioned by 
that disappointment, and then consider how much 
more good J;he epistle has accomplished and will 



130 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

accomplish in building up the kingdom of God than 
the conversion of every soul then in Rome would 
have done, we can begin to see that God was really 
answering the spirit of Paul's prayer more largely 
than he would have done if he had answered imme- 
diately and literally. Paul's great desire was to glo- 
rify God by extending his kingdom. In his short- 
sightedness, he thought that could best be done by a 
visit to Rome, and so he prayed for that, but he has 
seen ere this how much better it was to have the an- 
swer delayed until the letter was written. So it may be 
with your unanswered prayers. God is delaying that 
he may give you a better answer than you have dared 
hope for. God is 

Supremely good when'er he gives, 
Nor less when he denies. 

When the due season came, Paul received his 
answer and went to Rome. So shall it be with you. 
The due season is known to God and is in his hands. 
Wait patiently until he sends it. 

II. God also reserves to himself the right to change 
the answers to our prayers. In this case the writer 
was praying for a " prosperous journey." We know 
what he meant by that. He was weary with many 
labors, so he hoped, when the time came for his 
journey, that he might take passage some pleasant 
day in a well-appointed vessel, and then, under cloud- 
less skies and over quiet seas, he might be wafted 
by pleasant breezes from the harbor on the one side 
to the harbor on the other, rested, refreshed, invigor- 
ated by the delightful voyage. This is what he 
asked. Do you remember what he received? He 
embarked as a prisoner in chains, he endured two 
weeks of fearful bufferings in a storm that was phe- 
nomenal ; at last he got to the shore of a barbarous 
island just in time to escape the fate of the unfortu- 
nate ship. He went on to Rome, finally, chained to a 



UNANSWERED PRAYERS 131 

soldier, and so distressed and disheartened that the 
thoughtful kindness of some nameless ones in coming 
a day's journey to meet him was enough to make 
him " thank God and take courage." What a con- 
trast between this all and the prosperous journey for 
which he prayed ! 

So too, Moses, after he had promised his people a 
land flowing with milk and honey and had encour- 
aged them through forty years to follow him on to- 
ward that land, when he asked that he himself might 
go over into it, was given something else. 

And our apostle, on another occasion, when he 
found himself hindered in his blessed work by some 
affliction which was a thorn in the flesh, asked three 
times that it might be removed, but it remained. 

There was one other who could say, " I knew that 
thou hearest me always, " and there came a time when 
he prayed three times, " If it be possible let this cup 
pass from me," and it did not pass. 

But let me hasten again to say that when God 
changes the answer to the prayers of his people, he 
does it that he may give them something better. We 
may well rejoice that Paul did not get the sort of 
journey he asked for. He had written much of God's 
sovereignty, election, foreknowledge, and predestina- 
tion, and had so greatly magnified these doctrines 
that many have turned away from his writings with 
the idea that man is the mere creature of a fate that 
is entirely beyond his control. The answer to such 
is that Paul himself did not so understand the prin- 
ciples he taught. And the character of his voyage 
furnished him an occasion to illustrate that fact. 
While in the teeth of that fearful storm it was made 
known to him that God foresaw the result of the 
storm, and had foreordained that Paul should survive 
it, together with all who were in the ship, so that not 
a life should be lost. No stronger illustration of the 
truth of the principles he had inculcated could have 



^_____^_ 



I32 THE) SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

been given. But he did not understand that God's 
sovereignty, foreknowledge, predestination, and elec- 
tion relieved those concerned of all responsibility for 
the safety that had been foreordained and declared. 
On the contrary, when he saw an unwise and danger- 
ous thing about to be done, he did not hesitate to 
say : " Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be 
saved." It was worth all that Paul suffered, and a 
great deal more, to have from his own lips such an 
interpretation of his writings. If no other purpose 
had been subserved, this would have been sufficient 
to justify the changing of the answer. 

Moses too received a better thing than he asked. 
If he had gone through the land he would have seen 
only a few acres on either side of his pathway, but as 
it was, he was permitted " to view the landscape 
o'er " ; and, as it would seem from the account, see 
the whole of it in panoramic vision. 

Paul's thorn was not removed, but he was given 
grace to bear it, and so became an illustration of the 
greatness of God's grace to all generations. 

The cup of the Sufferer in Gethsemane did not 
pass. If it had done so, all that had been suffered 
and accomplished up to that time would have been 
lost, and the work of salvation would have proved 
a failure. But instead of that, an angel came to 
strengthen him, and he went forward to complete his 
work and win his final triumph. And so in every 
case, when God changes the answers to the prayers of 
his people, he does it that they may be benefited 
more than they thought or dreamed. You may not 
see now why you received something else instead of 
the thing for which you plead, but you shall see 
hereafter, and from the scene of that final revelation 
you shall go singing : 

Great and marvelous are thy works, 

Lord God Almighty ; 
Just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. 



Henry Wilson Battle belongs to the distinguished and 
honored Battle family of North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. 
He is the son of Gen. C. A Battle, and was born at Tuskegee, 
Ala., July 19, 1856. He was admitted to the bar at the age of 
nineteen, and practised law about three years. He began his 
ministry at Columbus, Miss., in 1878, and has been signally suc- 
cessful in attracting large congregations, promoting denomina- 
tional interests, and winning souls. Inheriting the oratorical 
temperament, Dr. Battle uses the pen but meagerly in preparing 
for the pulpit, and, therefore, to be fully appreciated must be 
heard. Great audiences are often mightily swayed by his ora- 
tory, but in the pulpit he ever exalts the Cross and humbly 
trusts in God for results. Mrs. Battle is the daughter of Rev. 
(and Hon.) J. L. Stewart, of North Carolina, and by her rare 
personal attractiveness, beautiful character, and devotion to the 
service of Christ, greatly enhances her husband's usefulness. 
Wake Forest College conferred upon him the honorary degree 
of d. d. As pastor of the First Baptist Church, of Petersburg, 
Va., he is successor to a long line of distinguished and honored 
men in the Baptist ministry of the South. 




H. W. Battle, D. D. 



XI 

CONSTRAINING LOVE 1 - 

BY HENRY W. BATTLE, D. D. 

" For the love of Christ constraineth us." 2 Cor. 5 : 14. 

THIS is the great apostle's triumphant answer to 
his accusers. Paul under open and severe cen- 
sure from members of a Christian church, strikes 
us as furnishing a situation so painfully incongruous 
that an explanation would be the most natural thing 
in the world. But for the present it is enough for us 
to bear in mind that the First Epistle to the Corin- 
thians had only fomented the Judaistic elements in 
the already faction-torn church at Corinth, until at 
the date of this epistle they were clamorously chal- 
lenging the authority of Paul and the truth of the 
doctrines he was preaching. Timothy and Titus 
brought news of the condition of things at Corinth 
(after the church had received his first epistle), and 
if we only had the letter Paul dispatched from Eph- 
esus by Titus, written in the heat of his righteous 
indignation, what a piece of invective we would 
have! The Holy Spirit suffered that letter to be 
lost, but it accomplished its mission. It caused the 
church to do some much-needed thinking, and thus 
prepared the way for the Second Epistle to the Corin- 
thians, intended, in turn, to prepare the way for the 
apostle's personal visit. 

More persons than Paul have found that it is not 
easy to maintain one's equanimity under unjust criti- 

1 Preached in Washington, D. C, during the Jubilee Session of the South- 
ern Baptist Convention. 

M 133 



134 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PUI.PIT 

cism, especially when the aspersions relate to the 
fondest attachment and the supreme ambition of Hie. 
Such an ordeal reveals the man, and in its fierce light 
graces or defects stand forth in sharpest outlines. If 
Paul never appeared more human, neither was he 
ever more manifestly great, than when pouring out 
his mighty heart in these rushing sentences, often 
made obscure by their very intensity. 

Is Paul ambitious? Does he desire by talking 
about bonds and imprisonments, or dreams and reve- 
lations, to exalt himself above his brethren ? Does 
he wish by his unsparing anti-Judaism, in ideal de- 
mands on the Christian life, to make himself the judge 
of conscience and the infallible interpretation of the 
Divine mind ? or has he gone quite beyond himself 
and is he mad ? All this — and much more — his ene- 
mies openly charge. To one and all his answer is : 
" The love of Christ constraineth us." I am quite 
confident that Paul meant the love of Christ for us } 
— it is so like Paul to look Christward for the source 
of power, — that love which prompted the Christ to 
die for us, " That they which live should not hence- 
forth live unto themselves, but unto him which died 
for them and rose again." But it is a love that gen- 
erates love : " We love him because he first loved 
us. " Paul says this love-producing love constrains. 
It constrained him. It made him brave ; it made him 
zealous ; it made him gladly bear all things for 
Christ, and count them gain. 

But somebody will say, " I do not wish a constraining 
love ; I wish a love that will revel in a world above 
the exactions of law." You do ? You are sighing for a 
love that melts away into a rosy cloud of sentiment, 
without form, substance, or power ? Pray, where will 
you find it ? L,ove, genuine love, on earth or in heaven, 
disdains your vapid dream, and answers you back : 
" I must, I must ! " Mark you, it is a must which 
has no despotism in it : " Perfect love casteth out 



CONSTRAINING LOVE 1 35 

fear ; because fear hath torment." Listen to the 
Christ : u I must do the will of him that sent me " ; 
and again, " My meat is to do the will of him that 
sent me." The glory of the new covenant is not 
found in that there is now no law, — no constraint;,— 
but the rather that " the fleshy tables of the heart " 
have been substituted for " the tables of stone." " I 
will put my laws into their minds, and write them in 
their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall 
be to me a people. ' ' They will not need in that day 
to take up their abode close by Sinai ; Calvary — ever 
present — will prove the safest guarantee of the law's 
performance. " If a man love me," said the Saviour, 
44 he will keep my words." He will, he cannot help 
it, if he love me — from what Archbishop Leighton 
calls 44 the inward bent of the mind." 44 As it 
should not be a compulsive or violent motion by neces- 
sity from without, so it should not be an artificial 
motion by weights hung on within, . . . but a nat- 
ural motion like that of the heavens in their course. n 
The love of Christ for me, appropriated and inter- 
preted by my responsive love to him, creates through 
the mysterious operation of the Holy Spirit a new 
nature, whose highest law and chiefest joy is to do 
his will. Chris? s love and mari*s love ! where and 
how do they meet and blend ? One has beautifully 
said : 44 Like burnished mirrors that face each other, 
they flash the sunbeams to and fro. And thus as we 
live near God we are filled with love, not ours, but 
his — his love we reflect back on himself, his love 
flung forward to men." Liberty ! talk of liberty ! 
here is the noblest sort of liberty — 44 the perfect law 
of liberty," because glad conformity to the conditions 
of the new life. 44 I will walk at liberty ; for I seek 
thy precepts." We need it, we must have it. A poet 
has said : 

Unless above himself he can erect himself, 
How poor a thing is man ! 



136 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

But man needs something more than that. Men 
are constantly erecting themselves, by forces within 
themselves, above their ordinary selves. It is this 
that gives to literature its poetry and to history its 
charm. Thus does the common man of yesterday 
become the hero of to-day. We need more than a 
mighty impulse, cradled in an emergency and sepul- 
chered in a day. 

O Henry ! always strivest thou to be great 

By thine own act — yet art thou never great 

But by the inspiration of great passion. 

The whirl-blast comes, the desert-sands rise up 

And shape themselves : from earth to heaven they stand, 

As though* they were the pillars of a temple 

Built by Omnipotence in his own honor ! 

But the blast pauses, and their shaping spirit 

Is fled : the mighty columns are but sand, 

And lazy snakes tread o'er the level ruins ! 

Thus begins, and thus ends, man's vaunted resolu- 
tions ! The world needs something more. Humanity 
needs the stability of an abiding principle, blended 
with the fervor of the heart's purest and best emo- 
tions. Where can you find it ? I answer, Nowhere 
in all the universe but at the CROSS ! " Other founda- 
tion can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus 
Christ!" 

"The love of Christ constraineth us." Go to the 
cross and learn how Christ loved you ! In the light 
of the cross, many a word in the text of life's hard 
lesson, which you have been spelling over through 
blinding tears, will put on supernal beauty, and 
affliction will lose its sharpest sting. If the ecstasy 
of an earth-born love could make a pagan smile on 
the dagger reeking with her blood, and exclaim while 
dying, " My Poetus, it does not hint ! " ought not the 
joy of this love to make a Christian glory in tribula- 
tion? If love, "of the earth earthy," can boast its il- 
lustrious examples of sublime self-sacrifice, esteemed 



CONSTRAINING LOVE 1 37 

priceless privilege though made at any cost, shall not 
this love awake in the breasts of its votaries a spirit 
of heroism purer, nobler, and more passionately 
earnest than any other beneath the stars ? Was not 
this the Saviour's meaning when he said, u If any man 
come to me and hate not his father, and mother, and 
wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and 
his own life also, he cannot be my disciple " ? Oh, 
friends, we do not love him as we ought ; and we love 
him in such a beggarly way because we meditate so 
seldom and so coldly on his love for us. We hardly 
half believe that he bore each of us in his heart from 
Bethlehem to Calvary. We hardly half believe that 
love, and not the Roman's nails, held him to the 
cross. Oh, if I could only have you go from this 
place to-day saturated with the thought that Christ 
Jesus loves you, and gave himself for you! Then 
would you go out to a new life,, a life with the Christ 
at your side. I plead for more love to the personal 
Christ. A love that shall be fervent and constraining ; 
a love that will make a man whisper, in the soul's 
most secret chamber, u Dear Lord, for thee," and 
then flash a joyous radiance over the face and through 
the life ; a love that will make a woman break the 
alabaster box, nor think of the sensuous pleasures its 
price might have bought ; a love more than earthly, 
because mixed with a love divine. And yet, the love 
of a mind alert to learn, and of a life made strong for 
service. I repeat, the world cannot do without it. 
The age, with all its magnificent attainments in 
material things and vast acquisitions of knowledge, 
cannot afford to forget that, "The knowledge of Jesus 
is the most excellent of the sciences." Imagine the 
stupendous loss this world would sustain if that sweet 
Personality, to-day enshrined in innumerable human 
hearts, could be changed into an abstraction, so that for 
the devotion of the lover would be substituted only 
the zeal of the student. I tell you, take Mary's u Rab- 



I38 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

boni!" and the trembling disciple's "My Lord and 
my God/" out of Christianity, and humanity turns 
wistfully from it with the cry of the prisoner of 
Machaerus, u Do we look for another ?" 

Finally, the work to be done for the world, the work 
needed and promised, is possible only for those who 
love the Christ and have caught his spirit. It is a 
blessed partnership work. " And, lo, I am with you 
alway, even unto the end of the world." " I can do 
all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." 
If we would save men we must love Christ and live 
near the cross. We are safest when, sitting down, we 
watch him there. "The Mediterranean is ever losing 
by evaporation, and yet it is always full, because it 
draws by the Strait of Gibraltar on the Atlantic." 
The cross is our Strait of Gibraltar, and our Atlantic 
is God's infinite love. We are best fitted for service 
when "bearing about in the body the dying of the 
Lord Jesus." To-day shall we not consecrate our 
powers afresh in love's sacred cause ? 

After all, love's work is the best work. I have 
somewhere read of an old cathedral, upon one of the 
arches of which was a sculptured face of exquisite 
loveliness. It was long hidden, but one day a slanted 
window flung a ray of sunlight full on the wondrous 
face and revealed its almost divine beauty. Ever 
after, year by year, when for brief moments the angel 
in the stone looked out, multitudes gathered eager to 
catch but a glimpse of that face. It had a strange 
history. When the cathedral was being built, an old 
man, with face plowed by tears and form bent with 
age, came and besought the architect to let him, 
somewhere on the noble pile, execute the commission 
of his heart. Out of pity, but fearing lest his failing 
sight and trembling touch might mar some fair de- 
sign, the master set him to work in the deep shadows 
of the vaulted roof. One day they found the old man 
cold in death, the tools of his craft resting beside him, 



CONSTRAINING I/)VK 1 39 

the cunning of his hand gone, and his face upturned 
to this other wondrously beautiful face which he had 
wrought — the face of one loved and lost in early man- 
hood. And when the artists and sculptors gathered 
there, gazing on that face, they exclaimed, " This is 
the grandest work of all; love wrought this!" 
Working amid the great world-shadows bodying forth 
without what love has enshrined within ; working it 
may be unheeded by human eye ; working, we fear, so 
poorly, but working out the heart's sweet and blessed 
behest — one day (what matter if the worker be still ! ) 
a slanting ray from God's cathedral window will fall 
on the work, and then shall the Master say, " This is 
the grandest work of all ; love wrought this/" 



XII 

god's unspeakable gift 1 

BY REV. MALCOLM MacGREGOR 

" Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift." 2 Cor. 9:15. 

AVERY noticeable characteristic of the great 
apostle to the Gentiles is his devout habit of 
ejaculatory prayer and praise. Even in the rush 
of his arguments, counsels, exhortations, and en- 
treaties, he finds a brief breathing space for sudden 
supplication and thanksgiving. These isolated gems 
of devotion are very precious to the hearts of all 
spiritual people. They are thrilling and sweet as the 
music of melodious bells rung in the momentary si- 
lence of the band. They captivate and charm the 
heart, like some wondrous voice pouring forth a song 
of unearthly sweetness, while for a time the stormy 
harmony of the orchestra is hushed. 

On land or sea, in labor or at rest, in solitude or in 
society, in prison or at liberty, unfolding a truth or 
enforcing a duty, in all employments and under all 
circumstances, the devout soul of the apostle breaks 
out frequently into fervent flame-like jets of devo- 
tional feeling, into sudden upliftings of prayer and 
praise. 

In a very natural way, the brief ejaculation of the 
text sprang forth from the heart of the apostle. He 
had been urging upon his readers the great duty of 
Christian liberality, particularly to the poor saints at 
Jerusalem who had been sorely impoverished by 

1 Delivered in Grace Baptist Church, Washington, D. C, during the 
Jubilee Session of the Southern Baptist Convention. 
140 




Rev. Malcolm MacGregor. 



Malcolm MacGregor was born in Osgoode, Ontario, Can- 
ada, November, 1842. He was baptized by Rev. W. R. Ander- 
son, in Breadalbane, Ont., June, 1854 ; under the ministry of Rev. 
Daniel McPhail, experienced a call to preach the gospel ; com- 
pleted the prescribed course for students for the ministry in 
Woodstock College under President R. A. Fife, in the spring of 
1868, and in June of that year was ordained. For twelve years, 
in his native province, he did pastoral work in the Kemptville, 
Smith Falls, and Georgetown churches, and evangelistic and 
fostering work in connection with the Convention East. From 
the spring of 1880 to the close of 1890 he labored in the State 
of New York, first as pastor of the Baptist church at Fre- 
donia, N. Y., and then of the Riverside Church, New York 
City. He has been for four years pastor of the First Baptist 
Church, Jacksonville, Fla. 



god's unspeakable gift 141 

widespread dearth, by prolonged persecutions and by- 
extreme self-sacrifice in behalf of the people and 
cause of Christ, in a season of great emergencies. 
While thus employed, the apostle came naturally to 
think of the insignificant and trivial character of all 
human giving when contrasted with the marvelous, 
boundless grace of God in giving the Son of his love 
to be our Saviour ; and thus the apostle was led to ex- 
claim with all his heart and soul, " Thanks be unto 
God for his unspeakable gift." 

I. The unspeakableness asserted of God's gift. 

1. The gift of God is unspeakable by reason of 
the greatness of its worth. The strong expression 
u unspeakable gift," used here with such emphasis 
by the apostle, necessarily refers to that gift of gifts, 
God's Son, for our salvation. God gave his only be- 
gotten and well-beloved Son, the brightness of the 
Father's glory and the impress of his substance, for 
us as an atoning sacrifice to eternal justice, and to us, 
as our personal Saviour and L,ord. He gave him to 
become united to our humanity, to become burdened 
with our transgressions, to make expiation for our 
guilt, and to deliver us from our sin and doom. The 
deity and dignity of Christ's personality, the perfec- 
tion of his humanity, the glory of his character, the 
power of his atoning and intercessory work, and the 
riches of his grace and love are of unutterable and 
inestimable value. 

In and with Christ, God freely bestows on all 
who by faith receive the Saviour all kinds of bless- 
ings, all manner of precious gifts. How could it be 
otherwise ? ' 4 He that spared not his own Son, but 
delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him 
also freely give us all things ? " Through Christ he 
delivers us from legal condemnation and from bond- 
age to Satan, the world, and sin. Through Christ he 
bestows upon us divine sonship, likeness, heirship 
holiness, comfort, and love, with all the riches 



142 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

of his grace here and of his glory hereafter, In 
Christ himself, we have a Saviour and helper, 
and through him we have, in God the Father, a 
Father and a friend, and in the Holy Spirit, a com- 
forter and guide. The supreme and all-comprehen- 
sive gift of God is unspeakably great and precious. 
Christ and the benefits coming to us through him are 
" unsearchable riches." In view of the vastness of 
the chief divine gift and its varied and gracious im- 
plications, one may well exclaim, with Addison : 

When all thy mercies, oh, my God, 

My rising soul surveys, 
Transported with the view, I'm lost 

In wonder, love, and praise. 

To all eternity, to thee, 

A joyful song I'll raise ; 
But oh, eternity's too short 

To utter all thy praise. 

2. The gift of God is unspeakable on account of 
the mystery of the giving. The giving is as unique 
and wonderful as the gift. To whom did God make 
this unspeakable gift? To sinful men, foes of his 
character and government, unholy, unthankful, hell- 
deserving. Why did he give his Son to die for his 
enemies? That we, u his enemies," might live 
through him. " Herein is love, not that we loved 
God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the 
propitiation for our sins." " Scarcely for a righteous 
man will one die : yet peradventure for a good man, 
some would even dare to die. But God commendeth 
his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sin- 
ners, Christ died for us." 

The mystery of this divine giving is marvelous and 
inscrutable. We are enriched with the Saviour and 
his salvation, not because of any merit present or fore- 
seen in ourselves ; but for reasons hidden in the infi- 



GOD'S UNSPEAKABLE) GIFT 143 

nite heart of God. Rightly considered, there is some- 
thing profoundly impressive and awe-inspiring in the 
mystery of grace. No one adequately understands 
and appreciates the gospel who does not recognize and 
adore the sovereignty, and therefore the mystery, of 
the divine mercy. But to those who know it and bow 
to it, the sovereign and mysterious mercy of God in 
Christ is unutterably solemn, precious, and sweet. 
Once in a long while the heart of the civilized world 
is made to throb with admiration and wonder at 
some rare instance of self-sacrificing friendship ; but 
the noblest gift ever made by man or the noblest deed 
ever done by man, deserves not to be named in the 
same breath with God's great gift of his Son, nay, 
his sacrifice of himself for the salvation of his ene- 
mies. To all eternity, the vastness and mystery of 
the divine mercy will be to the redeemed and to the 
angelic inhabitants of heaven a fountain of solemn 
and reverential joy. 

The prophet Hosea, in describing the ultimate res- 
cue and return of the apostate tribes of Israel back 
to the mercy and love of God, after all their wander- 
ings and sin, says of them, that, in those latter days, 
" they shall fear the L,ord and his goodness" ; that is, 
they shall humbly, wonderingly, and tremblingly rev- 
erence the great goodness of God in accomplishing 
their restoration and salvation, despite their stupen- 
dous unworthiness and guilt. When Moses, standing 
by the burning bush in Horeb, was about to be di- 
vinely intrusted with the commission to accomplish 
the deliverance of Israel from the Egyptian bondage 
— a deliverance foreshadowing and preparing for the 
great deliverance through Christ — he was commanded 
to reverently take his shoes from off his feet, because, 
in view of the divine majesty, faithfulness, and mercy 
there revealed, he stood on holy ground. 

The utter unworthiness of the recipients of the su- 
preme gift of God and the inexplicable goodness in its 



144 TH] 3 SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

bestowment — for he has loved and redeemed us we 
cannot tell why — should fill and melt our hearts with 
loving awe and trembling joy. 

Every soul that has had a true experience of divine 
love and grace might well exclaim : 

Why was I made to hear thy voice 

And enter while there's room, 
When thousands make a wretched choice 

And rather starve than come ? 

'Twas the same love that spread the feast 

That sweetly forced us in ; 
Else we had still refused to taste 

And perished in our sin. 

3. The gift of God is unspeakable because of the 
inadequacy of language. Limited as are our compre- 
hensions, our souls may, nevertheless, have thoughts 
too large for utterance, too deep for tears. The poet 
Tennyson, standing on a cliff on the rock-bound coast 
of England, gazes upon the sea ; and his soul is filled 
and overwhelmed with its immensity, its majesty, its 
mystery. So, in lines now long familiar to all, he 
strives to express the inexpressible within him : 

Break, break, break, 

On thy cold, gray stones, oh sea ; 
And I would that my tongue could utter 

The thoughts that arise in me ! 

But the subject before us presents to the gaze of our 
souls an ocean of divine love and mercy, without bot- 
tom and without shore ; an ocean, the immensity, the 
majesty, and the mystery of which infinitely transcend 
those of all earthly seas, and the contemplation of 
which should inspire every human soul with adoring 
gratitude and overpowering awe. 

The* power of the chief languages of the world, 
notably that of our composite English tongue, is, 



god's unspeakable gift 145 

when one comes to consider it, something wonderful. 
Think of the vast number and variety of terms, with 
their endless capabilities of combination, possessed by 
each great language, and the consequent capacity of 
each of these tongues for expressing great, manifold, 
and diversified thoughts and innumerable shades of 
feeling ! But no language, whether natural or artifi- 
cial, or both combined, can adequately express the 
great gift of God's love in Christ Jesus to a ruined 
world. Each human pursuit forms for itself peculiar 
facilities for expressing its own ideas ; but none of 
them can fully express, or, at best, do more than hint 
at, the greatness and the mystery of the gift of God 
to men. 

The gift of God is unspeakable in commercial 
terms. In our day, there is a strong tendency to reduce 
all values, moral as well as material, to the dollar 
standard. But there is no ratio between material and 
moral values ; between the worth of property and per- 
sonal worth ; between the importance of the things 
of nature and of the things of grace. The work of 
spiritual and holy character, the value of the love 
of God, the preciousness of the Saviour and his sal- 
vation cannot be estimated in financial terms. We 
are not redeemed by such things as silver and gold ; 
nor can gold and silver express, or even competently 
symbolize, the price of our redemption or the worth 
of God's great gift to men. 

The gift of God is unspeakable in philosophic terms. 
Philosophy grapples grandly with great problems, and 
more than any other secular pursuit, unlocks, liber- 
ates, strengthens, and sharpens the powers of the 
mind, and while doing so, furnishes it with a power- 
ful, flexible, and keen vocabulary especially adapted 
to the philosophic aim and method. But it does not 
express the greatness nor expound the mystery of the 
supreme gift of God. Devout philosophers, such as 
Bacon, Newton, Pascal, though they have habitually 

N 



146 the; southern baptist pulpit 

and earnestly brought their powerful minds to bear 
upon the theme, have ever felt themselves to be but 
children picking a few pebbles on the mighty shore 
of truth, to be but neophytes learning the rudiments 
of the science of salvation. They have ever felt 
themselves unable to express or to compute the worth 
of God's great gift of the Saviour. 

The gift of God is unspeakable in theological terms. 
Theology is the noblest of the sciences. It deals with 
the greatest and most important subjects ; and it con- 
stantly enriches and refines its vocabulary, laying na- 
ture, society, philosophy, learning, science, and art, 
under contribution for exact and illustrative terms 
with which to express the lofty and spiritual thoughts 
of God and the infinitely comprehensive and precious 
gift of God's grace. The advantages of thorough 
theological training and study are unquestionably 
very great. Theological systems have highly valu- 
able uses ; but no theological system has yet suc- 
ceeded in embracing all religious truth, or in exhaust- 
ing the subject of divine salvation. Doctrinal studies 
and discussions are profoundly important ; but no 
man, and no body of men, have ever yet put the whole 
of God's great gift into exact doctrinal form, or even 
exhausted any one great truth of the divine word, 
whether it be the Trinity, the incarnation, the atone- 
ment, regeneration, Christian ethics, the future life, 
or any other prominent Christian theme. 

Our little systems have their day ; 

They have their day and cease to be. 

They are but broken lights of thee ; 
And thou, O Lord, art more than they, 

The gift of God is unspeakable in artistic terms. 
All art is, in some sort, language. Art is nothing if 
not expressive. Oratory, with its richest resources, 
its most golden tongues, its Chrysostom, its Massillon, 
its Robert Hall, its Spurgeon, and its hosts of others, 



god's unspeakable gift 147 

ancient and modern, whose names have become house- 
hold words throughout the world, does not fully utter, 
does nothing more than faintly lisp the unspeak- 
able gift of God. Poetry, with its mighty, magic 
gift of utterance, with the glowing, sacred epics of 
Milton, with the enchanting sacred lyrics of Bernard, 
Wesley, and Cowper, has striven in vain to give full 
expression to the wondrous theme. Music has ex- 
pended its highest creative powers, its most massive 
combinations, its most ethereal influences, its most 
captivating enchantments, its sublimest strains, as 
witness the "Passion Music" of Bach, Handel's 
" Messiah," Gounod's " Redemption," and Liszt's 
"Christus," all in the vain endeavor to do more than 
suggest the overpowering majesty, mystery, and sweet- 
ness of the theme. Painting, with its brightest lights 
of genius, its Raphael, its Michael Angelo, its Mun- 
kacsy, has depicted, and can depict, only a few gleams 
from the glory of God's unspeakable gift. 

Thus all earthly methods and forms of expression 
— commercial, philosophic, theological, artistic — fail 
to give adequate utterance to the great and gracious 
saving truth, fail fully to express even such fragments 
of it as may now be apprehended by human souls. 
Nor even in heaven itself can the unspeakable gift 
ever be fully uttered. The most flaming tongues 
among the redeemed in glory, or among the seraphic 
hosts before the eternal throne, can never give full 
expression to God's unspeakable gift; but these in- 
telligences must ever find new conceptions, new as- 
pects, new applications of it, for speech and for song, 
through all the rolling cycles of eternity. 

II. The thankfulness demanded for God's unspeak- 
able gift. " Thanks be to God for his unspeakable 
gift." 

1. The thankfulness demanded for God's unspeak- 
able gift is an imperative obligation. The numerous 
analogies of gratitude in the natural world forcibly 



148 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

suggest to the thoughtful and sensitive mind the 
duty of thankfulness to the gracious Giver of all good. 
Throughout the material universe we see a bounteous 
and constant giving of benefits, and a ceaseless and 
gladsome returning of them again. The planets and 
their satellites cheerfully reflect the light bestowed 
upon them by the sun. The sea sends up her un- 
bounded exhalations in acknowledgment of the rain- 
gifts of the clouds, and the consequent inflowing of 
the streams. In grateful response for the air and 
light and rain of heaven, the earth sends up her offer- 
ing of fragrant flowers and savory fruits. The vege- 
table and animal kingdoms, in their mutual giving 
and returning of benefits, acknowledge their mutual 
indebtedness. In joyous recognition of the glorious 
gift of the sunlight, the feathered songsters make the 
fields and forests resound with their tributes of grate- 
ful praise. In all these beneficent reciprocities, and 
in numberless other ways external nature is a sug- 
gestion and a symbol of the highest truth — the un- 
speakable gift of God and the deep thankfulness due 
him from man. 

The duty of gratitude to God is firmly maintained 
by the law of nature, which plainly declares that 
benefits and favors received impose upon the recipient 
the duty of grateful regard and acknowledgment to 
the benefactor. Hence it is that all moralists and 
casuists whatsoever, heathen and Christian alike, 
treat the duty of gratitude under the general head of 
justice ; and they teach, with manifest truth, that 
gratitude for favors received is founded upon, and 
demanded by, absolute justice. Indeed, in some ages 
and by some nations, instances of flagrant ingratitude 
to great benefactors were severely punished by law 
as odious crimes. How criminal and odious in the 
sight of God must be ingratitude to him who is the 
greatest and the best, the most loving and merciful, 
from whom we derive life and breath and all things, 



god's unspeakable gift 149 

and wno, in addition to all his earthly benefits, seeks, 
notwithstanding- our unworthiness and sin, to bestow 
upon us his unspeakable gift ! Yet what is more 
common on the part of men than flagrant and per- 
sistent ingratitude to God ? 

That God attaches great importance to the duty of 
thankfulness to him for all his benefits in general, 
and especially for his gift of a Saviour, is manifest 
from his high favor toward those who gratefully re- 
ceive the Saviour, his salvation, and providential 
benefits ; and it is equally manifest from his severe 
displeasure toward those who impiously refuse the 
gifts of his saving grace, while thanklessly consum- 
ing the temporal gifts supplied by his providence. 

The duty of thankfulness to God for his unspeak- 
able gift is sanctioned by the law of nature ; it is 
commended by the example of the truly good in all 
the ages ; and it is rendered absolutely binding by 
the frequent and express commands of God, recorded 
in his holy word. 

2. The thankfulness demanded for God's unspeak- 
able gift is a regenerate impulse. Such was the 
thankfulness of the apostle. It sprang from a nature 
regenerated by the Spirit and truth of God ; and it 
was awakened by the sweet consciousness of possess- 
ing a sacred and saving interest in God's unspeakable 
gift. Though the gift of God is unutterable, yet 
every truly regenerate heart, every heart that has 
tasted that the Lord is gracious, instinctively strives, 
in various ways, to express its deep and ever-increas- 
ing sense of the greatness and preciousness of the 
gift ; and, on every account this gracious desire and 
tendency should, by every one, be assiduously culti- 
vated and developed. 

Profound thankfulness to God for the gift of the 
Saviour, of which the Apostle Paul was a shining 
example, is one of the surest evidences of regenera- 
tion and of a saving interest in Christ ; and it is 



150 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

equally true that only by spiritual regeneration of 
the heart and heart-experience of God's unspeakable 
gift, can man's deep, hard, black ingratitude toward 
God be broken up and abolished, and the human soul 
be made to throb with love and thankfulness toward 
him, and with all gracious and evangelical affections. 

On an ancient German castle, between its widely 
separated towers, strong wires were strung on the 
principle of the iEolian harp. No gentle zephyr, no 
ordinary summer breeze, no average wind could stir 
a note from this unique musical instrument. But in 
the autumn, when the storm-king came down from the 
mountains and, with his strong tempestuous hands, 
smote those mighty harp-strings, they resounded 
with a harmony so grand, so weird, so awful, as to 
shake the inmost souls of the listeners and to produce 
upon them impressions never to be effaced. So, only 
the breath of the blessed Spirit of God can evoke 
from cold, dead human nature, the rich, full soul-har- 
mony of devout gratitude and praise. 

3. The thankfulness demanded for God's unspeak- 
able gift is a practical acknowledgment. If the true 
Christian's grateful acknowledgment of God's great 
gift of a Saviour be analyzed and compared with 
God's word, it will be found that there is in it much 
more than the outward service of the lips. Our Eng- 
lish word " thank," when its close relationship to the 
kindred words " thing " and " think " is remembered, 
becomes particularly suggestive. The word " thing " 
indicates an object present to the mind, as a subject 
of thought; the word " think" expresses the action 
of the mind upon the thing, the subject of thought, 
before it ; and the word " thank " represents the pul- 
sating and practical response of the heart when the 
" thing " upon which the mind is " thinking " is a 
benefit received. So, in true thankfulness, both mind 
and heart and will are profoundly active. The text 
is indicative of a state of mind and heart in which 



god's unspeakable gift 151 

the unspeakable gift is clearly perceived, personally 
appropriated, and gratefully acknowledged. 

True thankfulness for God's unspeakable gift in- 
volves, at the very outset, a hearty acceptance of it. 
Without this there can be no true thankfulness for it. 
It is no part of gratitude to refuse or postpone accept- 
ance of the great gift of God freely offered in the 
gospel. On the contrary, it is black ingratitude not 
to accept, and that promptly and gladly, the mighty 
benefit. Rejection of Christ is an evil and a heart- 
less return for the goodness and mercy of God in 
freely providing and proffering so glorious a Saviour. 
Unless you heartily accept Christ, you are charge- 
able with the blackest ingratitude to God and with 
the willful ruin of your own soul. 

True thankfulness to God for his unspeakable gift 
demands entire consecration to him on that account. 
Tiiink not of thanking God with what costs you 
nothing, with the mere remnants of your life, with 
the mere dregs and rinsings of your self-indulgence. 
Give him yourself, give him your all. As the re- 
cipient of the Saviour and of his salvation, you are 
bound to give yourself and all that pertains to you to 
him, humbly and gladly, as a perpetual thank-offer- 
ing for those benefits. 

Christian, if you would render true and acceptable 
thanks to God for his unspeakably precious gift, you 
must lay your soul and body, your talents and time, 
your possessions and pursuits, your powers of service 
and your powers of endurance, on the altar of God. 
He having not only created and preserved you, but 
having also redeemed you by his blood, renewed you 
by his grace, and enriched you with his love, he has 
the profoundest conceivable right to yourself and to 
all that pertains to you. To consecrate yourself un- 
reservedly ^ to God will enable you to more fully 
and more joyfully to appreciate and appropriate the 
Saviour. 



152 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

True thankfulness to God for his unspeakable gift 
should prompt every recipient of it to imitate the di- 
vine character. The great design both of our crea- 
tion and of our redemption is likeness to God. What, 
in the essence of it, is godliness but God-likeness? 
Unless the unspeakable gift, by being received and 
incorporated into our hearts, produce in us, sooner 
or later, what might be called a speaking likeness of 
Christ and of God, that gift is in no sense ours. Out 
of profound gratitude to God for the Saviour and for 
salvation, there should be in every redeemed soul prac- 
tical, self-sacrificing and holy love to God, to Christ, 
to his people, and to the unsaved for whom Christ 
died, and the greatest readiness to serve God and to 
do good to men for his sake. 

True thankfulness to God for his unspeakable gift 
requires faithful effort to win souls to Christ and sal- 
vation. If our own souls have been rescued and en- 
riched through the redemption of Christ, we should, 
from love of God and love of men, strive diligently, 
tenderly, prayerfully, to win others to him, that they 
may become partakers of his salvation and evermore 
be trophies of his grace. With such practical ac- 
knowledgments God is well pleased. 

Let us therefore, with all our hearts, accept the un- 
speakable gift, consecrate ourselves and all we pos- 
sess to the service and glory of God, striving daily to 
become like him in character and life, and for Christ's 
sake try to bring many souls to be saved by his grace. 
Let us endeavor ever to maintain in our private and 
social life," in our work and in our worship, a devout, 
thankful, and joyful spirit. Then hereafter in the 
realms of glory we will " behold the King in his 
beauty " and join in the mighty chorus to his praise : 
" Worthy is the Lamb that was slain " ; " Thanks be 
to God for his unspeakable gift." 



C. S. Gardner was born in Gibson County, Tenn., February 
28, 1859. He was educated at the Southwestern Baptist Uni- 
versity, Jackson, Tenn., Richmond College, and Southern Bap- 
tist Theological Seminary. He has had the following pastorates: 
Trenton, Tenn., 1884-5 5 Brownsville, Tenn, 1885-6 ; Edgefield 
Church, Nashville, Tenn., 1886-94; First Church, Greenville. 
S. C, 1894 — ; in all of which he has been successful and pop- 
ular. Still a young man, the future has bright promise for him. 




Rev. C. S. Gardner. 



XIII 

THE HISTORY OF A SIN 

BY REV. C. S. GARDNER 

" And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit 
of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of 
the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect 
unto Abel and to his offering : but unto Cain and to his offering he had 
not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And 
the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth ? and why is thy countenance 
fallen ? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted ? and if thou doest 
not well, sin lieth at the door : and unto thee shall be his desire, and thou 
shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother : and it came 
to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his 
brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy 
brother? And he said, I know not : Am I my brother's keeper? And 
he said, What hast thou done ? the voice of thy brother' s blood crieth unto 
me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which 
hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. 
When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her 
strength ; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth." Gen. 
4 = 3-12- 

WE have the history of a sin recorded here, and 
I ask you to trace with me the successive 
stages of its development. 

But first, it is worthy of note that Cain lived and 
acted under circumstances very different from those 
which condition our lives. We live in the midst of 
an organized society, under the restraint of many in- 
stitutions and influences which curb our impulses. 
We have our sheriffs, our court-houses, our jails, and 
our penitentiaries. We live under the daily, hourly 
pressure of a powerful public sentiment. And speak- 
ing generally, we have two classes of sinners among 
us : those whose evil dispositions are partially re- 

i53 



154 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

pressed and largely modified in their expression by 
their social environments, and those who desperately 
defy the restraining forces that would hold them in 
check. Cain represents neither of these classes. So 
far as we know he did not live in the midst of social 
institutions that were a terror to evil-doers. If there 
were such institutions they were in a crude and in- 
cipient state. It is true that after he had murdered 
his brother and received the divine sentence of ban- 
ishment, he expressed the fear that he would be killed 
and the fear was accentuated by a guilty conscience. 
It probably does not indicate that he lived under 
social conditions which acted as a great deterrent 
force upon sinners. 

The history of his sin may therefore be regarded as 
the normal development of sin, undisturbed by out- 
ward and counteracting influences. It is the revela- 
tion of the essential nature of sin. Sin does not 
always manifest its essential character naturally and 
truly in our lives ; and so it happens that sin often 
does not seem so hateful to us as God's word depicts 
it ; and so it is that many of us come to think better 
of ourselves than we deserve. 

i. Let us look at the origin of this sin. Cain and 
Abel had come to present their offerings to God. 
Each brought that which represented his labor, and 
was, therefore, the best expression of self-dedication 
to God. So far as the formal action w T as concerned 
both men were equally devout and equally obedient. 
But God looks beyond the form of actions, and he 
saw in Cain the spirit of pride and self-importance. 
It had not occurred to Cain that there might be any- 
thing wrong with him or his worship. He presumed 
as a matter of course that God would find no fault 
with his sacrifice or with his life. Abel might be 
wrong ; that was quite within the bounds of possi- 
bility, as Cain saw it. But the idea that there was 
anything in himself to which God could object, he 



THE HISTORY OF A SIN 1 55 

would have scouted. He came to the altar with a high 
countenance and waited with presuming confidence 
for the manifestation of the divine favor. It did not 
come. He saw the divine favor bestowed on Abel's 
offering, and observed with surprise and indignation 
that his own was neglected. His countenance fell 
and he was wroth. He left the altar with wounded 
pride rankling in his heart. 

The root of his sin was the wrong attitude of his 
heart toward God. This is the origin, the potency of 
all sin. This is the flowing fountain of evil. And it 
is the fundamental truth which is overlooked by many 
men. Who of us has not seen the manifestations of 
this same spirit of Cain ? Are there not men here, 
who because their lives are formally correct, or at 
least approximately so, have presumed that they are 
right with God, and fancied that they are ready to 
abide the test of the divine judgment? If the atti- 
tude of Cain's heart as he approached the altar had 
been expressed in words, I am sure that many men 
among us would be startled to find that they had 
adopted the very same self-righteous phraseology as 
the first murderer. The same painful and humiliat- 
ing surprise awaits them as awaited Cain. They will 
be rudely awakened from the repose of their self- 
confidence and self-complacency by the rejection of 
their lives. And why? Not because they are for- 
mally incorrect, but because their spirits are wanting 
in humility and self-distrust and dependence upon 
the mercy of God. To be without the consciousness 
of unworthiness is the strongest possible evidence of 
the lack of worthiness, and also of the moral vision to 
perceive the lack. 

2. The rejection of his offering awakened in Cain 
a feeling of jealousy and hostility toward his brother. 
That was very irrational and foolish. Abel had 
nothing to do with the rejection of his sacrifice. But 
none the less the acceptance of Abel's sacrifice and 



156 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

the rejection of his own made him very angry with 
his brother. Sin is illogical. It is the negation of 
reason, the very essence of folly. Righteousness 
alone is rational both in principles and development. 

The fact is that Cain's heart being wrong in its at- 
titude toward God from the first, was wrong also in 
its attitude toward his brother. And the rejection of 
his sacrifice was merely the occasion for the develop- 
ment of this double iniquity of his soul. The only 
reason that can be given for the hatred of his brother, 
which now burns within him, is that he has never 
loved him before, has always been cold and selfish 
toward him. The fuel of hatred has been in his 
heart all the time, and this spark has simply ignited 
it. It is impossible to be right with man so long as 
we are wrong wi # th God. To be out of harmony with 
God is to be out of right relations with everything 
and particularly with our fellow-men, who next to 
God are the most exalted beings who claim our re- 
spect and love. The humanitariauism that does not 
have its root in religion is only an artificial flower. 

At this point in the history of Cain's sin, God 
meets him with a warning. He seeks to call back 
the foolish, passionate, angry man to reason, " Why 
art thou wroth?" He calls upon him to stop and 
think, to analyze and account for the strong feelings 
that rage within him. The excited man ought, on 
peril of his soul, to heed this divine call to calm re- 
flection. A moment's sober inquiry into the state of 
his mind would reveal to him its utter irrationality. 
And God adds the solemn warning, " sin lieth at the 
door." Be careful. You are in a dangerous state of 
mind. With a heart so charged with unholy passion 
you are likely to do a rash, reckless, desperate deed. 
Surely this call to reflection and this warning need to 
be taken to heart by every man in whose breast jeal- 
ousy, anger, hatred, have gained the sway. If your 
heart is bitter toward your fellow-men, remember 



THE HISTORY OF A SIN 157 

that bad feeling is only latent crime. You do not 
know when nor where you will be ushered into a set 
of circumstances which will bring to combustion all 
the inflammable material stored away in your soul, 
and then all the restraints of disused reason may be 
forgotten in the rush of unregulated impulse, and the 
hidden wickedness of the heart may register itself in 
a deed whose shadow shall darken your pathway to 
the very end of your days, The man of ill-will is a 
potential criminal. 

3. But Cain did not heed God's call to reflection 
or his warning. He did not dispossess himself of 
the bad feeling engendered by his disappointment. 
He did not keep a watchful eye upon the lion of sin, 
that crouched at his door. He went back to his 
dwelling with his heart surcharged with evil feelings, 
inwardly vowing that he would yet get even with his 
brother. And behold, the next development of his 
sin. He met Abel in the field. That which was 
uppermost in his heart must come out. He talked 
with Abel about the occasion of his chagrin, and be- 
ing in no amiable mood, picked a quarrel with him. It 
was unfortunate that he did not hold his tongue ; but 
he had not learned the lesson of self-control. Words 
led to blows ; in a fit of passion he dealt his brother 
a fatal stroke. And the first victim of murderous 
hate fell and gasped and died, and the first murderer 
felt the prick of that impenitent remorse which be- 
came the nemesis of his life. Not till then had he 
known the real nature of the passion which he had 
harbored in his bosom when he had become the typ- 
ical example of the truth, u He that hateth his 
brother is a murderer." The murder was probably 
unpremeditated, but it was no more than the sudden 
translation into deed of the disposition which he had 
cherished in his heart. looking stealthily around to 
see that there was no witness to the foul work of his 
hand, he drew his brother's body into a covert place, 

o 



158 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

and with throbbing heart and stinging conscience 
crept back to his dwelling place, and strove to wear 
the air of innocence and unconcern. The wretched 
man seems to have forgotten that All-seeing eye 
whicli read and judged the secret contents of his 
spirit when he came to make his offering, and did not 
realize that all the events and incidents of life are 
pictured upon that infinite retina. His brother's 
blood cried into the ears of God from the earth, 
which felt the eternal shame of that red stain upon 
its fresh and innocent soil. 

4. But follow his sin to the next stage of its de- 
velopment. God met him again, not this time with 
a timely call to reflection, nor with the merciful 
warning, but with the probing question, " Where is 
thy brother? " In the memory of Cain there was no 
scene so blazingly distinct as the spot where he had 
hidden the body of Abel. Every detail of the trag- 
edy and its surroundings was burned into his mind 
forever. At this question it flashed upon his mental 
eye with startling clearness. But he said, " I know 
not." The lie was the natural sequence of the mur- 
der. Oliver Wendell Holmes says : " Sin has many 
tools, but the lie is a handle that fits them all." There 
was an awful directness in this lie. " I know not," 
said the guilty man. But in fact there was nothing 
in all the world that he knew so well as what had be- 
come of his brother. There was a more brazen bold- 
ness in it. It was a lie to God. It has in it a solemn 
warning to us all. If you have sinned, the next step 
in Satan's programme for you is to lie. And he 
would have you lie not only to your fellow-men, but 
to your own conscience, the voice of God within you. 
He will impel you to deny your guilt to your own 
heart, and no falsifying is so depraving as that. The 
lie is the Satanic suggestion as to the way to disen- 
tangle one's self from the meshes of a sin. Cain 
thought thus to free himself and escape the conse- 



THE HISTORY OF A SIN 1 59 

quences of his deed. And the temptation is always 
for sinners to follow him in this effort. But oh, what 
a pitiful shield is a lie to lift between one's self and 
the flaming dart of justice. 

A falsehood does not cut the cord that ties the sin 
and its consequences to the guilty soul ; it is another 
bond that binds it faster. Confession is God's method 
of getting rid of a sin ; denial is Satan's. Will you 
follow God or the adversary? " If we confess our 
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and 
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." All the 
falsehoods with which a man may delude himself and 
elude his fellow-man do but multiply the threads with 
which to entangle his feet and ensure his downfall. 
Confess your sin and you are no longer identified with 
it, and you escape the fearful catastrophe which it 
is preparing for your soul. 

5. But this was not all of Cain's answer to God's 
searching inquiry ; he boldly put a question to God 
in return, "Am I my brother's keeper?" It was a 
further development of his sin. It was a crude at- 
tempt to formulate a theory of life that would justify 
him. Poor wretch ! had he not assumed to be more 
than his brother's keeper? Had he not assumed to 
dispose of his brother's life? And now he seeks to 
take refuge from the bitings of his guilty conscience 
and from the withering gaze of God in a formulated 
conception of human relations which would divest 
him of responsibility for his brother. Is it my busi- 
ness to look after him ? If he comes to misfortune, 
is it not his own lookout ? Why call me to account 
for him ? Have I not the burden of my own life to 
bear? 

Certainly in this matter Cain proves himself beyond 
all doubt to be a typical sinner. What has the world 
of sinners been doing since his day but following in 
his footsteps in this matter? Does not every debau- 
chee in this city, every thief, every whisky seller, 



160 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

every hard-faced swindler, every shrunken-hearted son 
of avarice, every rich exploiter of the poor man's 
earnings, every proud social pharisee, reason Cain- wise 
about his relations with his fellow-men ? After these 
thousands of years it would seem wonderful indeed if 
men had not made some refinements upon Cain's 
crude suggestion ; but it is only too evident whence 
they have derived the substance of their social phi- 
losophy. Alas ! that this Cainism has so much col- 
ored the thinking of the world upon this subject. 
Being a direct denial of our responsibility for one an- 
other, it has given to selfishness the dignity of ration- 
ality and the complacency of self-respect ; and it 
has played a great role in history. It has been a 
great principle in the social conduct of individuals 
and corporations and States, and not infrequently has 
shaped the conduct of the church of God. Out of it 
has come the larger part of the social wrongs and op- 
pressions and sufferings which, like Abel's blood, have 
cried to the God of heaven for vengeance. 

Are we our brothers' keepers ? Of course ; that is 
precisely what we are. Every man's life must have a 
self-regarding aspect, but so profoundly true is it that 
we are our brothers' keepers that only in the faithful 
fulfillment of this great mission does a man really 
take care of himself. Selfishness is self-destruction, 
and love is life. Cain far more effectually destroyed 
his own life than he did Abel's. The real enemies of 
social life and progress and prosperity are the men 
who to-day are living in the spirit of Cain ; the men 
who in things material and spiritual, in the sacred or 
the secular spheres of life, in church, society, or busi- 
ness, deny their responsibility for their fellow-men. 

The life of Cain teaches us that the wrong attitude 
of the spirit toward God is inseparably connected with 
iniquity in our social relations, and this expresses and 
iustifies itself in a false philosophy of life. It 
therefore gives us a hint as to the right method of 



THE) HISTORY OF A SIN l6l 

procedure in the regeneration of society* It is pri- 
marily a religious task. The first step is to set the 
hearts of men right with God. But this must be, 
and inevitably will be, followed by efforts at the re- 
adjustment of social relations, and this will be accom- 
panied by the revision of social theories. And the 
more active, aggressive, thoroughgoing, is the relig- 
ious movement, and the more intense and pervasive 
the religious spirit becomes, and the more rapidly 
and radically the hearts of men are set right with God, 
the more momentous will be the social movements and 
the more general and earnest will be the thinking on 
social subjects. But the social movements which do 
not proceed clearly from a religious basis can never 
come to good. Their success would be but a farther 
step in the progress of organized sin. In these times 
of agitation and counter-agitation in society, which 
we believe to be the ferment created by the active 
leaven of Christianity, we need to keep a critical eye 
upon the would-be reformers, and to carefully discern 
whether the men who propose to be casting the de- 
mon of Cainism out of the body of society, are them- 
selves proceeding in the spirit of Cain. To begin the 
reformation of society by a denial of God looks to 
me much like adoption of the first principle of Cain ; 
and it seems clear that such doctoring of the sick 
social body as these men will do will only amount to 
a fresh injection of the deadly poison. The humble, 
obedient acknowledgment of God must be the corner- 
stone of the new society. 

But let us turn from these general inferences, to look 
at: Cain again before the curtain falls and the wretched 
sinner passes from our view. The divine curse falls 
upon him. He is cast out from the presence of God ; 
and he cries in bitter despair, "My punishment is 
greater than I can bear." There is remorse, there is 
despair, but there is no penitence. 
i As we see the sad, blasted man turn to walk away 



l62 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

iii the deepening shadows of the eternal night which 
now settled about his spirit, we cannot help uttering 
the cry, " Oh, that he had repented ! " If instead of 
the lie and the evasive self-justification, he had con- 
fessed the sin that burned like fire in his soul, if he 
had said : " O Lord, I killed my brother. See, 
these hands are red with his blood, see this heart 
that is panting under the pain of its guilt O God, 
I hate myself; wash my hands of this blood, purge 
my soul of this intolerable guilt. O God, forgive, 
forgive ! " Then instead of the fiery curse, God's 
pardon, like gentle dew, would have fallen upon his 
soul, and a humbled, forgiven sinner, he would have 
gone about to serve his God and love his fellow-men 
in the joy of sweet gratitude. 



R. T. Vann was born in Hertford County, N. C, in 1851. 
He was converted in his twelfth year. One month later he suf- 
fered the painful accident of having his hands crushed in a cane- 
mill which deprived him of both of them. About the very hour 
his fellow-converts entered the baptismal waters, he was on the 
operator's table undergoing the amputation of the right arm 
above and the left just below the elbow. Soon afterward he ex- 
perienced a call to preach the gospel, and began preparation for 
his life-work. After two years in Buckhorn Academy, he en- 
tered Wake Forest College and took his degree. He then en- 
tered the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and spent one 
year. The following year was spent in reorganizing the Scot- 
land Neck Baptist Church. He then returned to the seminary 
to complete his course, but, after another year, ill health com- 
pelled him to forego this ambition. His most important charges 
have been Wake Forest, Edenton, and his present pastorate at 
Scotland Neck, where he began his ministry. His preaching is 
sound, original, and abounds in striking metaphors. 









1 


u 

: - 






- 






... ""..■'. . . ■ 




* 




l^^# 



R. T. Vann, D D 



XIV 

THE DECKITFULNESS OF SIN 

BY R. T. VANN, D. D. 

"The deceitfulness of sin." Heb. 3 : 13. 

WHAT is the origin of sin? Has evil always 
existed, or did some being originate it? 
Who was that being ? If Satan, must not God have 
created sin in him ? How could God ever have al- 
lowed sin to enter the world? On questions like 
these men have bestowed profoundest thought, only 
to realize after all their study that they know as 
much about them as when they began, and no more. 
What time have creatures like us to waste in such 
idle speculations ? The enemy is upon us ; shall we 
stop to guess who invented his arms ? Where is the 
wisdom of waiting to analyze the poison of the ser- 
pent that has bitten us, when we should be hastening 
to a physician ? What sin is, in its origin and first 
history, we do not know. One thing we do know, it 
entered the world and ruined the race by deception. 
One of the saddest pictures in all Scripture is given 
in the third chapter of Genesis. It is in three parts : 
First, we have a sinless pair of human beings, fresh 
from their Maker's hands, in the beauty of innocence, 
and gazing upon a serpent at their feet ; next, a 
shameful pair in conscious guilt, shrinking away from 
the Maker's face to hide among the garden trees ; 
lastly, a wretched pair taking their sorrowful way 
from their first and best home with a flaming sword 
behind them. Do you ask the meaning of the pic- 
ture ? The woman's answer to the inquiring Judge 

163 



1 64 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

shall explain it : " The serpent beguiled me." It is 
to this deceiver and his terrible work that I would 
turn your minds to-day. 

1. I must crave your patience while seeking to im- 
press the doctrine that sin deceives. 

i. While the text seems to refer to the sin of unbe- 
lief, the writer to the Romans, speaking of sin in 
general, declares that it deceived him and slew him. 
Indeed, it is difficult to conceive of any man's sinning 
without some kind of deception. Men do not violate 
human law without a perverted view of the law itself 
or of the deed contemplated, or some hope of escaping 
the penalty. Can it be possible for one in open view 
of the wrath of God to persist in a course that he 
knows must incur such wrath ? Nay, there must be 
some sort of deception and a vast amount of it in the 
matter. 

But are not men depraved, and do they not natu- 
rally love sin ? To be sure ; but as I take it, they do 
not love sin because it is sin, but because it gratifies 
some appetite of their nature. It is safe to say that 
all of an ungodly man's actions look toward his own 
pleasure. Does he steal ? He does not do so because 
the law says "Thou shalt not steal," but because 
theft promises gain. Does he give alms ? It is not 
because of God's blessing upon him that hath pity 
on the poor, but his own gratification. 

Satan would have been dangerous if the fall had 
only made him our adversary. But now he comes 
with double power. To the strength of the lion is 
added the subtlety of the serpent. His native force is 
joined with matchless strategy. Every blow has a 
heightened effect ; every movement a hidden design. 

2. This deceptiveness will still further appear if we 
remember that, as all sin deceives, so all men are 
liable to this deception. Some one has said that sin 
deceives the Christian but forces the unbeliever. This 
cannot be true. Exposed to the same temptation 



THE DKCKITFULNKSS OF SIN 1 65 

and by the same tempter, all men fall by the same 
process. Being crafty, sin catches them with guile. 
Of one thing you may be sure, no human being was 
ever forced to sin. One essential of sin is freedom. 
Deeds under compulsion are guiltless. God con- 
demns no man for what he cannot avoid. 

But are we not blinded by Satan and led captive at 
his will? Yes, but by our own consent. We are 
not driven into sin, but drawn. We are not forced, 
but fooled. And yet, while sin does not compel, how 
well-nigh absolute is its power. It throws a spell 
over its victim, and charms him to death. There are 
two forces in every human being: The power of 
conscience, which persuades to righteousness ; and 
the power of sin, which makes for iniquity. Man 
consents to the law of God that it is good. At his 
best moments he serves the law of God ; but sin inter- 
venes, persuades, deceives, and he goes on to serve 
the law of sin. 

I see the right and I approve it too ; 

Condemn the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue. 

You have felt the charm in that fine stanza : 

Go ask the infidel what boon he brings us ; 

What charm for aching hearts he can reveal 
Sweet as the heavenly promise hope sings us, 

Earth hath no sorrow that heaven cannot heal. 

You know too, that in all your acquaintance, there 
is hardly a man who in life and character is farther 
from heaven than was the author of that stanza. 
Poor fellow, I think he could not have sung so 
sweetly of heaven if his soul had not sometimes 
looked heavenward and sighed for a better life. But 
why will men thus awakened still follow the old life 
to their own undoing ? In the text lies the answer : 
"The deceitful ness of sin." 



1 66 the southern baptist pulpit 

But it was to Christians that the text was addressed. 
Says Spurgeon, " If any man thinks he is perfect he 
is perfect in folly. " Says a greater than Spurgeon, 
" If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves 
and the truth is not in us." I ain speaking of the 
two forces within us. In the believer these forces are 
reversed. 

The power of sin is weakened and the power of 
conscience strengthened by the grace of God. But 
both are still mighty, and sometimes painful is the 
conflict. We are not yet free from the effects of the 
fall. If you fancy that Satan abandons the fight 
when once he is defeated, you have much yet to learn 
about him. He never yields until the gates of heaven 
have closed behind the soul. And if we were abso- 
lutely sinless, there would still be vast meaning for 
us in the warning of the text. Our first parents were 
perfectly pure, and yet they were deceived and ruined 
by sin. But if we were more than human, we should 
still need to guard against our crafty foe. Angels, 
once lustrous in the glory of the skies, lost all their 
thrones and splendor through sin's deceptive arts. 
" Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an 
evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living 
God." 

But can the elect be deceived ? Who are the elect? 
Are you one of them ? Has the Father ever handed 
down to you a fee simple title to heaven ? Nay, the 
only sure proof that one is elected is his holding out 
to the end. And besides, in electing to save his 
people, God chose to do so through their watchful- 
ness. Moreover, the bulk of what we know about 
election comes from Paul, and yet the man who had 
heard from the lips of Christ that he was a chosen 
vessel, said, " I keep under my body, ' and bring it 
into subjection : lest that by any means, when I have 
preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 
When a man says, if I knew I was one of the elect I 



THE DKCKITFULNESS OF SIN l6j 

would sin as much as I liked, there is grave reason 
to fear that he of all men is not one of them. He is 
no child, seeking the Father's table and the Father's 
face, but a miserable tramp begging stale bread from 
the kitchen door. 

Yes, all men are open to sin's deception. " Watch 
ye, therefore ; . . and what I say unto you I say unto 
all, Watch. 

II. It may be well now to observe some of the 
methods of sin's deception. 

A common practice of evil is to hide itself wholly 
from view. It begins as secret sin. All sins start in 
this way, as all fruitage is the result of planting, and 
Satan is willing for the seed to lie buried long for the 
sake of a certain harvest. The crime that shocks 
with startling horror is but the eruption of a long dis- 
eased heart. So does the cancer shoot its deadly 
fibres through the system for years before it breaks 
the surface. 

You are not aware of this evil presence within you. 
True, and therein lies your danger. You had rather 
fight six armed men before you than a single un- 
armed foe behind you. In secrecy lies much of 
Satan's power. Secret sins ! They hide away in the 
heart's chambers, ashamed of the light. Secret sins ! 
They paint those dark life-pictures over which we 
blush even in dreams. Secret sins ! They skulk in 
the dangerous darkness, waiting for our blood. Secret 
sins ! A nest of vipers unperceived till their fangs of 
death have poisoned the life. Secret sins ! Slumber- 
ing volcanic fires that shall roll over the soul a sea of 
flame. 

And when its presence is revealed sin begins to 
argue how small the evil is. But there are no little 
sins. We say there are, forgetting that the mere tast- 
ing of a little fruit lost paradise to our first parents 
and heaven to so many of their children. Little sins 
are sent to introduce greater ones. Why is one end 



1 68 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

of the wedge small but to make way for the larger 
end ? Let Cain but cherish that secret grudge, and 
ere long Abel's blood shall flow for it. Let Judas 
harbor that devilish greed for gold, and you shall see 
him betray the Son of Man with a kiss. Up yonder 
in the mountains is a tiny stream oozing between the 
sheltering leaves. Now it meets a kindred streamlet. 
Still a little child at play could turn their course. 
But by-and-by these meet a third, and thus a rivulet 
is formed, and then a river, till at last you behold the 
w T ild cataract breaking its resistless way to the sea. 
This is the course of your little sins. 

Another method of Satan is to paint the pleasures 
resulting from the evil course proposed. u Your 
Master would not deny you pleasure. He himself is 
called the happy God, and he 4 giveth us richly all 
things to enjoy.'" Yes, God delights in your happi- 
ness, but take heed, good friend, lest the apples of 
pleasure turn to apples of Sodom and become dust on 
your lips. Beware, lest you wake from your dreams 
of pleasure in a land where dreams and pleasures 
come no more. I know you will pardon the refer- 
ence. It was years ago, but I remember it well. 
They gave me the soothing narcotic and my sleep 
was sweet. I awoke to find my best physical strength 
forever gone. 

These are not all of sin's devices. Their name is 
legion. Now the deceiver quotes the example of 
some good man, as if any man were perfect Now he 
exhibits the good to be accomplished by yielding, as 
if we might do evil that good may come. Sometimes 
one command, is destroyed by magnifying another. 
Thus, if one has been baptized he fancies that all is 
well, though he has never put forth a hand to help 
the needy, nor given a dime to spread the gospel. 
Another thinks that it matters little whether he is 
ever baptized if only the heart is right ; as though 
the heart could be right that refuses to obey the last 



THE DKCKITFULNKSS OF SIN 1 69 

command of the Lord Jesus. A pleasing performance 
of sin is to step boldly forth in the garb of humility, 
as the spy in the enemy's camp wears the enemy's 
uniform. Thus, one says, u Alas, I am too vile to be 
saved by the mercy of God," fancying that he is mag- 
nifying God's justice while he is really making him a 
liar. His promise is: u Him that cometh to me I 
will in no wise cast out," and I honor him by believ- 
ing. Another tells us God is too merciful to punish 
a soul forever. But he hath said, " The soul that 
sinneth it shall die," and who art thou that gainsay- 
est what God hath declared ? I think that some such 
method as this was pursued with Adam and Eve. 
God had warned them that eating the fruit meant 
death. " Oh, no," said Satan, u you shall not surely 
die." They believed Satan; they disbelieved God; 
they ate the fruit. The result — oh, the mournful 
result ! 

III. But why make such ado about deception? 
You have often been deceived, you say, and yet with 
no serious results. But look to the end of sin's de- 
ception and you will see reason enough for keenest 
solicitude. Sin is no idle worker. It proceeds with 
sure and steady aim. It seeks nothing less than the 
death of its victim. 

I am not sure that physical death is the result of 
sin. It may have been that bodies like ours must, 
after a while, have wasted away from their own 
weakness. But I am sure that sin has invested death 
with all its terrors, for " the sting of death is sin." 

But there is another death outlined in Scripture, 
the moral death. u In the day that thou eatest 
thereof thou shalt surely die." Man ate and died 
right there. He instantly lost his finest life. When 
the preacher mentions death as the outcome of sin, 
men at once begin to think of the future. They for- 
get that doom follows guilt as promptly as peal fol- 
lows flash. Death treads hard upon the heels of sin. 



170 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

You spend a round of years in sin and call it life. It 
is not life. It is but a wretched skeleton with the 
soul all gone. Sin pulls the tap and your best life 
runs gradually out. You are dying hourly and by 
inches. 

And then that other death — the final death, the 
deathless death. " The wages of sin is death." 

There is a death whose pang 

Outlasts the fleeting breath. 
Oh, what eternal horrors hang * 

Around that second death. 

It is not my purpose to picture those horrors. I 
would not if I could. I only want to remind you 
that eternal death is the outcome of sin's deception. 
How many of the ills in your life are traceable to 
mistakes !' One step, you thought, and my fortune is 
secured. You took the step and realized too late that 
it was a blunder. It is melancholy, it is mournful, to 
hear the fallen emperor saying in reference to his 
crime against Josephine, " I thought I was treading 
on a bed of roses, when a fearful abyss yawned be- 
neath and engulfed me." I have sometimes tried to 
imagine the utter dismay of a lost man when first he 
realizes whither sin has brought him. I can only fancy 
him wailing out in bitter despair, u Oh, blinded mad- 
man, oh, wretched idiot, not to have seen through 
sin's deceitful veil and have chosen a better way ! " 

Is this the power of sin ? Am I thus exposed to so 
fearful a foe ? Who then can be saved ? Who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death? Do you 
fear sin ? Would you be free from its damning do- 
minion? Then I thank God, through Jesus Christ 
our Lord, I have a message from the King for you : 
"Call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people 
from their sins." Yes, from their sins. u But, alas ! 
that does not cover my case, for I am not one of his 
people.' y Well, here is something that does cover 



TH£ DECEITFULNESS OF SIN 171 

your case: "The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, 
cleanseth us from all sin." Apply to him, prove the 
efficacy of his blood, test his power to save, and then 
if you are turned away, go and tell it in the regions 
of the damned that there is no balm in Gilead and 
no physician there. But that shall never be, never. 

Thou dying Lamb, thy precious blood 

Shall never lose its power, 
Till all the ransomed church of God 

Be saved to sin no more. 

Dear old stanza, sing it over and over again. It 
sounds like a song from the upper temple. I do not 
love the thorn bushes, but I love the roses that they 
bear. I do not love the freezing winter winds, but I 
love the music that they make. I do not love the 
darkness, but I love the stars that it reveals. I do 
not love to be a sinner, but I do love to think of the 
sinner's Redeemer, who " is able also to save them to 
the uttermost that come unto God by him." And 
sometimes my soul stands upon the verge of gratitude 
for sin in rapturous view of God's amazing redemp- 
tion from sin. 

But you mean to turn from sin, you say. When ? 
11 Not now ; some other time." That is Satan's great 
soul-soother which lulls to everlasting sleep. God 
says, to-day ; you say, no, to-morrow. That is unbe- 
lief, the devil's first-born, and by it he shall lead you 
on till the gates of mercy have swung to and death 
has barred them fast. But are you longing to turn 
now ? You need not wait, for the Father is calling to- 
day. The preacher was standing on the steps of a 
cottage, just leaving for a Western State, and the 
woman was showing him a picture. " You remember 
him," she said. " Poor Rob, he fell into sin and ran 
away, ashamed even to come and bid me good-bye. 
If you see him, tell him to come right home, for his 
mother loves him yet." Oh, child, famishing in the 



172 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

far country, come back home to-day, for the Father 
loves you yet. 

But you sometimes hope that you have been deliv- 
ered from sin, and yet you fall so often, and your life 
is full of tears. Well, you shall have many more 
falls, I fear ; but they shall not be final nor fatal. 
Tears, yes, showers of them ; but the sunshine of 
grace shall turn them into rainbows about you. And 
so it may ever be until there bursts upon your aston- 
ished vision the glory of the rainbow around the 
throne. Jesus says : u He that endureth to the end 
shall be saved." Anybody can tell me how I ought 
to live. ' The vilest wretch in the gutter can deliver 
me a fair lecture on morals. Thanks be to God for 
the wonderful, wonderful Teacher, who not only tells 
me how I ought to live, but helps me to live in that 
way. 



James Conway Hiden was born at Orange C. H., Va., Nov. 
5, 1837. His father was a member of the Legislature of Vir- 
ginia. His mother was a niece of Governor James Barbour, 
and of Philip P. Barbour, Speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives of the United States, and Justice of the United States Su- 
preme Court. He was educated at the Virginia Military Insti- 
tute and the University of Virginia. He was professor of ancient 
languages in Chesapeake Female College, and was ordained to 
the ministry in 1859. He served as Confederate chaplain 186 1-5. 
He has served as pastor in Portsmouth, Va., Wilmington, N. C, 
Greenville, S. C, where he taught homiletics in the Southern 
Baptist Theological Seminary; was pastor in Charlottesville, Va., 
Lexington, Ky., New Bedford, Mass., Eufaula, Ala., and now 
serves as pastor of Grove Avenue Church, Richmond, Va. Dr. 
Hiden is a man of broad scholarship, wide reading, and refined 
literary taste. 




J. C. Hidfn, D. D 



XV 

CHRIST CRUCIFIED 1 

BY J. C. HIDEN, D. D. 

11 We preach Christ crucified." I Cor. I : 23. 

THERE are certain forms of speech which, in 
brief phrase, sum up whole systems of thought 
— political, philosophical, religious. If two men are 
discussing the principles of government, and I hear 
one of them say, " The best government is that which 
governs least," if he is not mouthing, but knows 
what he is talking about, I know where to rank him 
as a politician. He is a straight-out, old-fashioned, 
States-rights Democrat. 

If two men are discussing philosophy, and I hear 
one of them utter solemnly the words, ' l Know thy- 
self," if he understands himself historically, I know 
where to place him. He is a disciple of a philosoph- 
ical school, founded by an old Greek more than two 
thousand years ago, a school whose doctrines have 
been expounded by Reid, and adorned by the genius 
and learning of Sir William Hamilton, in his " Phi- 
losophy of Common Sense." 

And when two men are talking about religion, and 
one of them utters reverently the words, " Christ 
crucified," I know that he holds the New Testament 
view of Christian doctrine, that he is an evangelical 
Christian. " Christ crucified " is Christianity. It is 
our religion. What sort of a religion is it? 

1 Preached at Vermont Avenue Christian Church, Washington, D. C. 
during the Jubilee Session of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

173 



174 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

I. IT IS A HISTORIC AI, RELIGION. 

Christianity is no mere " theory of moral senti- 
ments." It implies, and is based upon a history. 
However high an opinion a man may have of the 
personal character of Jesns ; however highly he may 
praise the Sermon on the Mount, if he does not ac- 
cept the historical facts of the gospel — if he does not 
believe in Christ crucified — how can he be called a 
Christian? If I reject Christ crucified, my religion is 
gone. 

This religion does not depend upon any theory, 
nor even upon the fact, of inspiration. If Matthew, 
Mark, Luke, and John have given us real, honest 
histories ; if Jesus said the things that they say he 
said, and did the things that they say he did, then 
there stands our doctrinal Christianity historically 
vindicated, inspiration or no inspiration. 

Nor are we absolutely dependent upon the evan- 
gelists for our history. Tacitus tells us that during 
the reign of Nero, the Christians became numerous in 
the city of Rome ; that the sect was founded in Judea 
by Christ, who was executed under the administration 
of the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate; and that this 
superstition spread itself even to the city of Rome. 
Tacitus did not like Christianity. He called it a pest. 
But then he was writing a history, and there the 
Christians were. 

Pliny, a judge in the province of Bithynia, in a let- 
ter to the Emperor Trajan, tells him of the Christians, 
who had become numerous in Pliny's province. He 
describes them as innocent in their lives, and says 
they were accustomed to meet together and sing 
hymns of praise to Christ as God. Now there stands 
a historical statement of the doctrine of the divinity 
of Christ, as held by the Christians of the first century. 
What are you going to do with it? I once heard a 
learned professor of Greek speak contemptuously of 



CHRIST CRUCIFIED 1 75 

what he was pleased to call " the slipshod Greek of 
the New Testament. " What would he say of the 
classic Iratin of Tacitus and Pliny ? But 

II. IT IS A RATIONAL RELIGION. 

I mean what I say ; for I do not admit that the in- 
fidels have a monopoly of the reason of the world. In 
the strict sense of the term, I am a rationalist ; that is, 
I do not believe anything that seems to me unreason- 
able ; and I do believe historical and doctrinal 
Christianity, because I see good reasons for believing 
it. When the so-called rationalist charges me with 
professing to believe what I do not understand, I 
flatly deny the charge It is impossible for me to 
believe an unintelligible statement. 

" But," says the skeptic, "don't you believe in the 
doctrine of the Trinity?" Yes, and I understand 
all that I believe about it. I believe, from various 
statements made in the New Testament, that the 
Father, the Creator and Governor of the universe, is 
God. That is a perfectly plain statement. I under- 
stand it, and so does that eight-year-old boy, sitting 
there before me. Then I believe that the Son, Jesus 
Christ, the Redeemer of the world, is God — another 
perfectly plain statement. Finally, I believe that the 
Holy Spirit, the Comforter and Sanctifier, is God — 
still another plain statement. I have no difficulty 
whatever with the meaning of any one of these state- 
ments. 

" But," says my antagonist, " how do you reconcile 
these statements? How can three persons constitute 
one God ? " Well, I don't understand anything about 
the "how" and I don't believe anything about it. 
I have no revelation on that subject. The Bible says 
nothing about it ; and I have no creed, and not even 
an opinion about it. 

"But, how about miracles?" Well, I believe in 
them. "But you don't understand them." Yes, I 



176 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

do understand them exactly as far as I believe them. 
I believe that Jesus plastered up the eyes of the man 
that was born blind ; that he sent him to the pool to 
wash ; that the man obeyed, and that his eyes were 
opened, so that he could see ; and I understand every 
one of these statements, and so can any average child 
of eight years. 

"But," says the unbeliever, u you do not under- 
stand how that was done." Certainly not; and I 
don't believe anything about the how. If I knew 
how, probably I could do it. Why not ? When I am 
prepared to tell how miracles are wrought, I expect to 
work some. If I know how a thing is done, then 
that thing is no longer a miracle to me. Jesus Christ 
explained many of his parables ; but he never ex- 
plains one of his miracles ; and the preachers who ex- 
plain them nowadays always explain them away. 
As soon as the explanation comes, the miracle is gone. 

" But how about the sovereignty of God and the 
free agency of man?" Well, I believe in both. I 
believe that the Creator works all things in this uni- 
verse according to the counsels of his own will ; and 
then I believe that I am responsible to him for my 
conduct. And if I did not believe that he is sover- 
eign, then I could not believe that I am responsible 
to him. 

Thirty-five years ago a strong party in this country 
held that the paramount allegiance of the citizen 
was due to the sovereign State in which he lived ; and 
this because of the sovereignty of the State. An- 
other strong party held that the allegiance of the 
citizen was due to the Federal government, because 
that government was possessed of sovereignty. Both 
parties held that responsibility followed sovereignty ; 
and so we fought for years over the question, "Where 
does sovereignty reside? " I hold then, that my re- 
sponsibility grows out of God's sovereignty. 

" But," says the objector, "you do not know how 



CHRIST CRUCIFIED 1 77 

to reconcile the two doctrines. " No ; I don't pretend 
to " reconcile n them. The Bible says nothing about 
it, and I have no creed on the subject — no, not even 
an opinion. 

But there is no subject on which thorough investi- 
gation will not bring us to the point at which we are 
obliged to say, "We don't know." We say, u As 
plain as a, b, c." But a, b, c will become an in- 
soluble problem, if you oilly go deep enough. If any 
of you school children want to puzzle your teacher, 
ask him where a, b, c came from, and he will be 
" turned down." The world does not contain a scholar 
who knows the origin of the alphabet. 

But 

III. IT IS A PRACTICAL RELIGION. 

I was once sitting on a car, at Gordonsville, Vir- 
ginia, reading the " Westminster Review," the organ 
of British infidelity. A skeptic came to my seat and 
said, " Do you read that sort of literature ?" " Yes," 
I replied, " I want to see the devil's latest dodge. 
How can I hit him if I don't know where he is?" 
And then we entered upon a discussion of the evi- 
dences of Christianity. I called his attention to a 
man whom we both knew ; who had been a notorious 
profligate, had become a Christian and a most excel- 
lent and useful man. The infidel did not even try to 
answer that argument. 

If you ever knew a very bad man who became a 
Christian and a good man, then practically this re- 
ligion holds its own until the infidel produces a real 
Christian who was a bad man, and who was con- 
verted to infidelity and became a good man. Did 
any one ever hear of such a man ? And yet infidel- 
ity is logically bound to produce him or else quit the 
field. 

Now, I can produce my man. I was preaching in 
a protracted meeting at a country church in Tide- 



178 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

water, Virginia. A man present was notorious for 
his wickedness and his opposition to religion. His 
wife had been converted, but he would not allow her 
to be baptized. His niece, — a member of the family, — 
a girl of sixteen, had been converted and wished to 
be baptized. He told her that if she was baptized he 
would turn her out of the house. She was baptized 
and he did turn her out, and she was obliged to go to 
a neighbor for shelter. During the service that day 
I saw this man rise from his seat, fall upon his knees, 
the tears streaming down his cheeks. After kneel- 
ing a minute, he arose, walked down the aisle to the 
seats on the right of the pulpit, and began to shake 
hands with the deacons and other members of the 
church, saying, " My friends, you know what sort of 
life I've led ; you know how I have hated religion. But 
I can't stand it any longer. I must go with you. I 
must be a Christian. " Just across the church sat his 
poor wife, her face all bedewed with tears of joy ; and 
the next Sunday they went down together into the 
water and were buried with Christ in baptism. Years 
afterward, I learned from the pastor of the church 
that this man was living a consistent Christian life. 
Now, if you should ask that man why he so changed 
his course of life, he would tell you that it was the 
religion of " Christ crucified " that wrought the 
change. Don't you think he ought to know what 
was the matter with him ? 

Ungodly man ! the very charges which you bring 
against Christians for doing what you do not pretend 
to abstain from, are clear proof that you do be- 
lieve in the practical power of Christianity to help a 
man in his life. You do not hesitate to do what you 
would condemn me for doing. Why ? Because you 
really believe that a Christian has, and ought to have, 
a higher standard of life and conduct than have the 
ungodly around him. But if there is no practical 
power in his religion to help him to do right, and to 



CHRIST CRUCIFIED 1 79 

restrain him from doing wrong, what right have you 
to require a higher standard for him than you have 
for yourself? On merely natural principles you are 
just as much bound to do right as I am. 

Now, here is this world full of wickedness. We 
Christians are struggling against the power of dark- 
ness, and striving hard to make the world better. 
And there you stand, looking on indifferently at their 
hand-to-hand fight with sin and the devil, and criti- 
cizing the plan of the campaign ! Man ! it is neither 
sense nor decency. If you are of any account, stop 
your foolishness and take hold like a man and help 
in the fight. 



XVI 

THREE STEPS UP 1 

BY J. B. GAMBRELL, D. D., LL. D. 

" And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in 
knowledge and in all judgment ; that ye may approve things that are ex- 
cellent ; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ ; 
being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, 
unto the glory and praise of God." Fhil. I : 9-1 1. 

THAT is a wonderful prayer, isn't it? The 
prayer sprang out of the apostle's heart, as he 
exclaims above, in behalf of the church which he 
evidently loved very much — one of the churches to 
which he wrote against which he could lodge no 
complaint at all. This letter to the Philippians is a 
beautiful love letter — warm, sweet ; ranging from be- 
ginning to end on a high plane of thought and feel- 
ing. And yet, as good a church as this one was, it 
was capable of being a better church. The apostle 
wanted them to get up higher, to see things from a 
higher standpoint ; in other words, to grow in grace, 
that growing in grace they might burst out like the 
full sap in the trees, into buds, and flowers, and fruits. 
There is a suggestion in the very way in which the 
apostle comes to the matter of getting this church on 
the up-grade. He laid the foundation of his whole 
effort in his prayer for them — an excellent lesson for 
us. Our brethren pain us often. Some of them are 
perverse ; some of them are so narrow ; some of them 
are so weak. They vex us, and we fret, scold, and talk ; 

1 Preached in Trinity M. E. Church, Washington, D. C, during the 
Jubilee Session of the Southern Baptist Convention, and stenographically 
reported. 

i So 




J. B. Gambrell, D. D., LL. D. 



J. B. Gambrell was born August 21, 1841, in Anderson 
County, S. C, and was taken by his parents to Mississippi the 
next year, where he " grew up with the country," spending the 
years of his growth alternately between the country school and 
labor on the farm. From an academy he went into the war at 
nineteen, and for most of four years was captain of scouts. It 
was while scouting he met Miss Mary T. Corbell, of Nansemond 
County, Va., to whom he was married inside the Federal lines 
on January 13, 1864, at one o'clock at night. After the cere- 
mony he drove across the Blackwater, twenty-five miles, before 
nine o'clock the same morning. He was ordained to the minis- 
try in 1866, and after completing his education at the University of 
Mississippi, was chosen editor of the "Baptist Record," which 
position he filled with great and growing distinction for fifteen 
years. He was elected president of Mercer University in 1893, 
without seeking the place. Furman University, S. C, gave him 
the degree of d. d., and Wake Forest, N. C, ll. d. Dr. Gam- 
brell is an energetic and incisive writer, an entertaining, pop- 
ular, and effective speaker. 



three: steps up 181 

they get worse and we get worse. The suggestion of 
the apostle's method is this : When our brethren are 
weak, are in any way short of what they ought to be ; 
if they are living on a lower plane than they ought 
to live on, we should put under them the arms of our 
prayers and lift them up. I have in my thought at 
this moment a sister who had been in a great deal of 
trouble over a succession of inefficient pastors ; and 
after a while one worse than all the others came. 
She betook herself to earnest prayer for the weak 
man in the pulpit. Her account of it was that she 
had never seen any one improve as he did, and I 
doubt not that she was wonderfully improved herself 
by her own prayers. 

Brethren, let us approach the initial thought — the 
uplifting power of prayer in the life of a church and 
in the life of an individual. Might I not say with pro- 
priety that what we really need in these troublesome 
times is a great, swelling undercurrent of prayer in 
all our work to lift us up. We have great trouble in 
our Christian work, and a great many of our enter- 
prises are like vessels on the Mississippi River ; when 
the water gets low they go on the sand-banks, and 
can't be gotten oflf until the water rises. We want a 
great rising tide of heartfelt prayer to God through- 
out the land. 

The apostle gives us three distinct stages in this up- 
grade movement. And they are logically connected ; 
very plain, very simple, they come to my experience 
and to yours. In the first part of this prayer the 
burden of the supplication is that the love of these 
brethren might abound more and more. Our religion, 
brethren and sisters, is a religion of love. It is no use 
talking about doing things religiously in cold blood. 
Love is the manifestation of the divine life in us. It 
all began in love — " God so loved the world." Christ 
loved us and gave himself for us ; and if we do not 
love Christ we have missed the whole secret and the 

Q 



1 82 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

whole power of the Christian life. We must put 
away the idea that people can live a Christian life 
and not have a Christian life to live ; unless we have 
the life in us we cannot live it out. But some of us 
who began to love the Lord years ago — and I am 
satisfied we love him this morning — do not love him 
as we started out to love him. Might not some of us 
be compelled to own that some of the old love has 
gone ? We must get the idea of growing in love, 
not simply the idea of growing in the efficiency 
of doing things, but primarily of growing in love. 
I think it ought to be like the love that married 
people have for each other — the well-married. How 
fresh, how exuberant is the love of a newly married 
couple ! How sentimental ! People laugh at it. Yet it 
is very beautiful to think on. I am sure that no two 
people who have ever walked through life in this rela- 
tion to the end have ever loved each other too much. 
It is a pity that they sometimes grow cold in love. 
You know our Lord speaks of our relations to him 
under the form of marriage; and it is a good figure, a 
good illustration. People who are just married think 
that there are no other people in the world who love 
as they do, and that they will never be able to love 
so much any more. Yet, if they live as people 
may and should, this is only the beginning of a con- 
stant, widening, mighty current of love. It seems to 
me it is like a mountain stream which comes down the 
mountain side, laughing, sparkling, dancing, making a 
good deal of noise ; after a while it gets more to a dead 
level, and the banks widen, the current deepens and 
broadens, and other streams flow in from right and left 
until, away down yonder, the little mountain brook- 
let that leaped out of the mountain gorge has become 
a great river, bearing on its majestic bosom the com- 
merce of the nations. So married life, fresh, exuber- 
ant, a little noisy, a little showy at the start, deepens 
with the years, as it is tested and tried, and the one is 



THREE STEPS UP 1 83 

close to the other through the long weary hours of 
sickness and when they stand together and weep 
over little coffins. Now they are gray-headed and 
old. Oh, the height and depth, the length and 
breadth of that love! Deep as the sea; — eternal as 
God, is love, for it is heavenly. 

My brethren, it is a great pity if we who are old to- 
day, after thirty or forty years of experience, do not 
love more than we used to. If we have not increased 
the breadth of our Christian love, the depth and 
strength of it, then we have greatly neglected our 
privileges. If we are not better for the experiences 
through which we have passed, let us look again, just 
a moment, at the marvelous tokens of divine love 
that have come to us since our conversion. 

Some of us have passed through deep waters ; 
and as we went down into them and the great waves 
of affliction rolled over us, and the storm was upon 
the mighty deep, our hearts quaked. But there came 
to us through the waves and walking on the sea one 
who is L,ord of land and sea, and he stilled the waves, 
and great peace came to us in our afflictions. This 
is not a passing dream or speculation, but the blessed 
experience of those who have attempted to walk 
with God. The old saint, scarred and weather- 
beaten, who put to sea forty years ago, did not under- 
stand many things then that he understands now ; he 
did not appreciate then the words, " I will never leave 
thee nor forsake thee," but now he knows it is all 
true. The heart is stronger now and fuller of love. 

I will not forget this morning that I am talking in 
a city church. I have great concern for our city 
churches, for they need to be strong, surrounded as 
they are by the strongholds of worldliness. Oh, breth- 
ren and sisters, what we want back in our city 
churches to-day is the great heart and patience of 
Jesus Christ and of his love for men and women. We 
cannot fiddle people into the kingdom, and we can- 



184 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

not beguile them by worldly methods into the love oi 
Jesus Christ. We want something you Methodists 
had — the zeal of John Wesley ; and we Baptist people 
want the rugged earnestness of John the Baptist. We 
are compelled to live ; we are compelled to fight ; and 
ever-growing love, which is a part of experience, 
should feed itself day after day upon the ever-increas- 
ing number of divine blessings bestowed upon us, 
and so shall we be stronger to live aright and fight 
valiantly. 

I was in a place somewhat north of this some 
years ago at a prayer meeting. I heard a great many 
things said that were not particularly edifying to my 
thinking — fanciful, flowery, and secular. After a 
while there was a lull, and a girl stood up and said, 
u I was converted a year ago, and from the day that I 
was converted I have made a practice of stopping 
quietly for a time every day, and thinking of what 
new blessing God has given me." And then she 
mentioned some new blessing or experience she had 
received that day. It was a good suggestion, this 
of stopping to think of the blessings that God gives 
us ; for those blessings nourish our love, they broaden 
it and strengthen it. 

I am not to dwell much longer on this point, but I 
cannot leave it without enforcing it. I wonder if 
there is here this morning somebody who is trying to 
serve God without lc v e ? There are such people in 
the world ; they are all about us. Such service is 
perfunctory ; it has a form of godliness, but it lacks 
power. If there are any such before me this morn- 
ing, let me say that the idea is a mistaken one. Be 
done with it ; be done with it ! If you have never 
loved, seek now to love the Lord Jesus Christ. Men 
and women, throw yourselves down at the feet of the 
Christ until you are caught up by the great, swelling 
tide of Jesus' love; and don't try to serve God without 
love. I wonder if there is anybody here this morn- 



.X_l 



THREE STEPS UP 185 

ing who is trying to serve God under the old love — 
whose religious love is a recollection, a bright spot in 
the past ? Let your love catch up with your years. 
You need it to help you to-day. I notice that people 
who are quick at cultivating a good many other 
things, and do not cultivate love, get into a bad state 
of mind. They are hard to please. The preacher 
cannot please them ; nobody else can please them ; 
not even God himself, not even the blessed adorable 
Christ can please them ; and they never will get 
pleased until there comes back to them as a present 
experience the blessed love of Christ that passeth all 
understanding. Brother, sister, do not let this day 
go out until you have renewed your vows and come 
back into touch with the loving Christ 

But to the next point. This love is to be in knowl- 
edge. Love is a great force, comparable to a river 
sweeping on, blessing and making fruitful everything 
that it touches. Love that is thoughtless, indiscrimi- 
nate, and degenerates into mere sentimentalism, 
wastes itself like a stream broken from its banks, 
burying itself in the sandy plain. There is a great 
deal of difference between the dignified and manly 
love of Jesus Christ and mere religious sentimen- 
talism. I wish we could note the difference this 
morning. We have some in the world who go about 
with their mouths full of soft words. They love God 
and they love the devil ; they love God's people and 
they love the devil's people, and they love them all 
the same way. They don't know any difference be- 
tween right and wrong. They think God is so full of 
love that he would take the Apostle Paul to heaven, 
and the chariot would catch Judas in his downward 
descent and take him there too. 

Let us understand that love does not necessar- 
ily make people foolish. Knowledge ! knowledge ! 
growing in knowledge ! We ought to know the 
quality of the things we are going to love. There 



1 86 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

are some things to be loved, and there are some 
things not to be loved. A good thing is to be loved ; 
a bad thing is not to be loved. I never was in a thea- 
tre but once ; that was in the days of my ignorance. 
I went not knowing the guile in there ; but I soon 
saw the difference between the theatre and the prayer 
meeting. I found things all about me which a church- 
member had no business to love. There are many 
people who need to know things ! And yet, they 
will not have knowledge. They will not let you talk 
to them. They go out on the streets and talk to infi- 
dels, and catch all sorts of loose notions ; but they 
will not let God's people touch them — never. 

Not a great many months ago a cultured woman 
came to me. Her face was the picture of intense suf- 
fering. She said, " I have come to consult with you 
about my boy." "Well," I said, " madame, tell me 
about your boy. How old is he? " " Twelve years 
old," she said. "What is the matter with him?" 
She said, " I cannot control my boy at all. He goes 
down town all the time, and he gets into all sorts of 
mischief, and now he is in the lock-up. The mayor 
has just sent me a note that if I will be responsible 
for his punishment I may take him out. What am I 
to do with my boy?" I said to her, "Madame, you 
go down there and take your boy ; and when you get 
him at home shut him up in a room, and you go in 
there with him with a heart full of love and a bundle 
of switches, and stay with him a week if necessary ; 
stay there with that boy until he is thoroughly con- 
quered and thoroughly submissive to your will." She 
said, " I love my boy ; I cannot whip him." " Oh," 
I said, ' c madame, you don't love your boy with any 
common sense. Your love is not a love that has any 
knowledge of boy nature in it. You are raising your 
boy for the gallows. You had better stay with him 
in that room a week, and wear out on him all the 
switches you can get your hands on rather than let 



THREE STEPS UP 187 

him go to ruin. Solomon was not the fool many 
modern people think he was on that subject. " Yet, 
she did not do it. 

Now, brethren, we want love, but we want love 
according to knowledge. This church needs to love 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and to love the souls of men, 
but you do not want to run about after all sorts of 
worldly ways. Think you that you can save men by 
encouraging them in their worldly lives ? Oh, how 
we need sound knowledge ! How much we need 
knowledge in our religious work and in our indi- 
vidual lives ! 

And then, not only abound in knowledge, but in 
judgment also. There is a great difference between 
knowledge and judgment. Judgment is that sense 
which enables us to make the right use of knowledge. 
A wise man, having all the facts before him, will 
know what to do. He will not know what to do 
unless he has the facts, for his judgment must have 
something to work on. He must have knowledge 
and then judgment to tell him what to do. 

Now Christians ought to be wise people. We need 
to be harmless — as harmless as doves, but as wise as 
serpents. We want to be very wise in our church 
methods. We should so adjust our church methods 
as to reach out as far as we can to help people ; but 
we want to be very wise, that when we reach out to 
take the world the world does not take us. 

It ought to be a matter of profound study all the 
time how to be wise ; how to be wise in the manage- 
ment of a definite case. The father wants to be wise 
with his boy. I have in the school where I am, a 
strong, resolute boy, at that critical period in his life 
when it is hard to say which way a boy is going. 
His father took hold of that boy with a strong grip, 
but with a grip that was flesh and blood, with waimth 
and tenderness. It saved the boy. 

What I am insisting on now is wisdom — practical 



1 88 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

wisdom in our Christian lives. There are a great 
many people who seem to think that as soon as a 
man gets converted he must give up common sense 
entirely. We do not put into our religion the com- 
mon sense we put anywhere else. Christianity is a 
monumental miracle because it has lived against the 
folly of people who have had it in hand. To illus- 
trate : you have a congregation that wants to build a 
church house. They go to work to build the church, 
but don't know anything about the money. After a 
while they find themselves deeply in debt. Then 
they wonder how it all happened, and they go to 
praying for assistance, and try to pray the money out 
of somebody's else pocket to pay their church debt. 
If you intend to build a church you ought to know 
that you have to build it out of common material, 
out of wood and stone or bricks ; and you want com- 
mon sense in it ; wisdom, practical judgment. 

Now let us go back and come up these three 
steps rapidly. The prayer began with love, that it 
might abound more and more in knowledge and in all 
judgment — three great steps upward, landing us on a 
higher platform ; a heart full of love, a mind well in- 
formed, a judgment well balanced. The result of it 
is most excellent — " That ye may approve things that 
are excellent." 

The Bible is not given on the plan of telling us 
everything we must do and everything we must not 
do. There are great principles laid down, and we 
must have judgment to apply these principles. There 
are new tendencies coming up constantly that are 
new ; and there is nothing specific about them in the 
Bible. But if a man's heart is right with God, and if 
his knowledge is as it ought to be, and his judgment 
is right, he will not have any great trouble to find 
out on which side of any common question of the day 
he ought to stand. 

A great many of our people are greatly pestered by 



THREE STEPS UP 1 89 

theatres and dancing and card-playing, and the like 
of that. They say in their confusion and in their 
anxiety, " Where is there anything in the Scriptures 
against these things ?" Well, they are in a greatly 
unseasoned condition spiritually. Nobody doubts 
when he gets on the platform where Paul wrote this 
letter to the Philippian church. Nobody doubts 
which way the theatre is going : it is of the earth, 
earthy ; and there is not a spiritually minded man or 
woman between the seas that doesn't know it. No- 
body doubts where the ball-room stands : it is of the 
earth, earthy ; it is of the flesh, the world, and the 
devil. Every spiritually minded person knows where 
it stands and what stands for it. " That ye may ap- 
prove things that are excellent." It is not excellent, 
is it? 

I recall that some years ago I was interviewed by 
two ladies on this very subject. One of them was a 
church-member ; the other was not. They were both 
very elegant ladies. This very question of the ball- 
room was brought up, and my opinion asked. I can 
sum up what was said in a very few words. The 
church-member said she did not feel that it was 
wrong. I said to her, u All right ; but the next time 
you get dressed for a ball, while you are waiting for 
your escort, you open your Bible at the twelfth 
chapter of Romans and read that chapter right 
through : ' I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the 
mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living 
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your 
reasonable service. And be not conformed to this 
world : but be ye transformed,' and so on. Then get 
on your knees and ask God to bless you and bless the 
ball, and bless the ball to you, and to everybody 
there. " The other lady, who was not a member of the 
church, broke out laughing. She said afterward, " I 
was not laughing at you ; I was laughing at how 
ridiculous Cousin Dona would look, on her knees, 



190 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

asking God to bless her and bless the ball. " They are 
things that do not go together, and will not hold 
fellowship with each other. 

Thousands of questions are coming up all the time, 
and a man ought to be elevated enough in his spirit- 
ual life to discern the quality of things and to approve 
the things that are excellent. 

Then we are to be sincere. That is a very fine 
quality for the Christian. To tell the truth ; to be 
honest enough not to say, "I am not able to give" 
when he is ; not to say, " I cannot go to prayer meet- 
ing," when he just does not want to go ; not to say, 
" I cannot do this or that," when the real reason is, 
he does not want to do it ; but to be perfectly sincere 
and open before God, being filled with the fruits of 
righteousness to the praise and glory of God. 

It was one of the first thoughts in my spiritual life 
that I should be saved. Of course, we cannot help it — 
nobody can help thinking about that. I think now I 
am going to be saved, and my heart is resting on that. 
I know one thing for a certainty ; I am not going to be 
saved because I am worthy to be saved. But my feet 
are on the rock, and I expect to stand there. I am not 
thinking now so much about being saved ; I am think- 
ing about heaven. I feel that I am going to a city, 
now only a little way off. I can see the spires yonder, 
I am so close ; and I am not sorry it is close, not sorry 
at all. Brethren, the thought in my mind now is, 
that I shall fill up all the remaining days of my life 
with the fruits of righteousness, living the life of ser- 
vice that God will help me to live, so that when I 
come into the presence of my divine Lord and Master, 
I may be like a transplanted tree borne down with 
fruit, and not like a tree with leaves and no fruit. 

I may not see you again until we meet before God's 
great throne. May the Lord Jesus preserve your 
souls, and sanctify you, and help you, and fill you 
with his Spirit. For Jesus' sake I ask it. Amen. 



Lansing Burrows, son of J. L. Burrows, d. d. , was born in 
Philadelphia, Pa. , April 10, 1843. He was taken while a young 
child to Richmond, Va. , and there at the age of fifteen years he 
joined the First Baptist Church, of which his father was pastor. 
He entered Wake Forest College in 1859, ano ^ though prevented 
by the war from graduating in 1862, was graduated by the faculty 
when the institution reopened. In 1867 was married to Miss Lulie 
S. Rochester, of Stanford, Ky. , and the same year was ordained 
to the ministry. In 1872 Princeton and Madison Universities 
gave him the degree of a.m, , and Bethel College, Ky. , that of 
D. D. in 1882. He has held important pastorates North and 
South, and is now pastor of the First Baptist Church, Augusta, 
Ga. As secretary of the Convention since 1881, he has won 
great praise by the promptness and proficiency with which he, 
together with his associate, Dr. O. F. Gregory, has each year 
issued the Minutes of the body. He is also the skillful editor of 
the Baptist Year-Book, the most valuable statistical handbook 
possessed by the denomination. Few men among us preach 
more of the gospel, or the gospel with more power, than does 
Dr. Burrows. 




Lansing Burrows, D. D. 



XVII 

UNBELIEVING BRETHREN 1 

BY LANSING BURROWS, D. D. 

" For neither did his brethren believe in him." John 7 : 5. 

THAT must have been a great sorrow to Jesus. 
While he came to be " despised and rejected of 
men," it would seem peculiarly hard to be despised 
and rejected of his own kindred. The family tie 
among the Jews was always very strong. It is now ; 
the Hebrew is a model of family affection. He may 
follow the instincts of his father Jacob in his dealings 
with you on the street, but in his home he is tender 
and true and loving. His wife and his children are 
always the handsomest and best, and he delights to 
shower benefits upon them. The kindred of the L,ord 
ought not to have been exceptional in this virtue. 

But they did not believe in him. So the Master 
became identified with the chief sorrow of many peo- 
ple. There is many a good man whose heart is sore 
over the waywardness of his children. The sweet 
and holy schemings to persuade unto like precious 
faith all go for nothing. Prayers are unavailing, and 
exhortations, like those of just L,ot, only awaken 
cruel mockings. It is a heavy burden to bear, with 
the world looking on amazed and wondering what 
hidden sin has brought forth such nauseous fruit ; in- 
quiring with the old short-sightedness as to who the 

1 Preached in Foundry M. E. Chinch, Washington, D. C, during the 
Jubilee Session of the Southern Baptist Convention. This discourse was 
delivered in the main without notes, and cannot, therefore, be considered 
an exact reproduction of what was said on the occasion. 

191 



I92 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

sinner was, that such blindness and hardness should 
follow. With a quiet meekness, He who bore our 
sorrows, bore even this mighty sorrow too ; among 
his own kindred, those who knew him best, those in 
whose veins flowed the same blood, those were found 
who gave no heed to him or seemed to care for him. 

They knew much about him. They were not 
strangers. His doctrine was no new thing to them. 
He was always full of gentle admonition, and some- 
times addressed them with great plainness of speech ; 
as when he says to them in this connection, " Your 
time is always ready ; the world cannot hate you." 
There was so much in common with them and the 
world, that the caviling, persecuting spirit had no 
fault to find with them. They could go to feasts or 
anywhere else, and nobody would trouble them. But 
all those years, the history of which is hidden from 
us, they had been with him; they had seen his sweet 
childhood and his guileless youth and the majesty of 
his budding adolescence, all marked by patience and 
unrestrained piety — the richest piety of all, that of 
the home and in the family circle. Then they had 
seen the beginning of his wonderful works ; the mar- 
riage at Cana of Galilee was probably a family affair ; 
at least, they were all with him, and saw what he did. 
They saw his wonderful works, for they urged him 
to go and show what things he could do to other peo- 
ple. They were very astute with their advice. They 
said in effect : " What is the use of doing these things 
in a corner ; go out in the wide world and let people 
see what a great man you are ; you have impressed 
some folks ; you have disciples in Judea who ought to 
see more of you ; go to them and make sure of them, 
lest they waver in their faith in you." 

All this is very surprising to us. They must have 
heard the talk concerning the wonderful happenings 
attendant upon his birth ; the song of angels and the 
adoration of wise men; and the testimony of their 






UNBELIEVING BRETHREN 193 

aged kinsman, Zacharias, and that of Anna and 
Simeon and Elisabeth and their consin John, the 
ascetic preacher of the wilderness. Now all these 
things that are strong evidences to us were supple- 
mented by his blameless life, his earnest ministry, his 
just and perfect character, his unfailing power of 
wonder-working. How could it be that they failed 
to believe in him ? It was most surprising, was it 
not? 

I. These " brethren " have their counterpart to-day. 
I suppose that a strict exegesis would not permit us 
to trace a similarity between these kinsmen of the 
flesh and us, who are his brethren because given 
power to become the sons of God through faith in 
his name. I do not insist on such interpretation, 
although " brethren" is a title of his own choosing. 
He has taught us to say, " Our Father," and for him 
"the whole family in heaven and earth is named" ; 
and the chief distinction he confers on us is in the fact 
that " he is not ashamed to call them (us) brethren." 

But we are in such a position to him as were these 
brethren according to the flesh. If anything, the 
position is better. Once a woman blessed the mother 
who bore him, and he said that they that heard the 
word of God and kept it were more blessed. Once 
his kindred sought him and a superserviceable person 
interrupted his discourse by telling him that they 
were without desiring to speak with him ; and you 
recall how with impassioned eloquence he bent his 
hands over his disciples and exclaimed, " These are 
my mother and my brethren." It is a greater thing 
to believe in Christ than to be merely allied to him 
by ties of kinship. What is outward is not so much 
as that which is inward. 

The important matter is this : you are brought into 
very close contact with him. You know him, you 
see him, you understand his word with less difficulty 
of understanding than men have ever experienced. 



194 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

All the light of the centuries clusters about him and 
his mission and his doctrine. He has been attacked 
by the learning of all ages, and the truth still stands. 
There has not been a single opposition that has not 
been met. There can be no new argument against 
him. The latest forms of doubt and unholy criticism 
are but borrowed from men that died a hundred 
years ago. We know more about him than those 
who saw him with their eyes and heard him with 
their ears. The accumulation of testimony is simply 
amazing. The numbers who have been converted by 
the power of his Spirit, the rough, unlikely natures 
that have been changed, the trophies won by the 
power of the cross, the millions who say, "Thou art 
the Christ," where once a single voice proclaimed 
him, all of these are occasions of belief that even his 
own kindred failed to possess. 

And yet, with this richness, the difficulty of yield- 
ing him an implicit trust is great. We believe him 
and do not the things that he says. We hear him 
and yet doubt. We listen to his command and yet 
follow not, or with halting and uncertain steps. We 
know his power and yet fail to lay hold of the arm 
of his strength. In the midst of his unfailing supply 
we go wretched with hunger and paralyzed with fear 
and barren when we should be abundant with fruit. 
Faith in him is still the pressing need of discipleship. 
The want of faith in him is the occasion of the 
church's somnolence, and is the secret of whatever 
inefficiency may be justly attributed to her. The 
absence of thrilling testimony, the self-satisfied 
languor in view of opportunity, the insidious thought 
of self-ministry, all spring out of the fruitful matrix 
of unbelief. Like his brethren, we desire that he 
shall show yet other wonders, while we leave untried 
the victorious power of a faith that overcomes the 
world and makes us the workers of wonders. 

II. The occasion of the unbelief of his brethren is 



UNBELIEVING BRETHREN 195 

the occasion of our unbelief. I mean by that we 
have, as had those brethren, mistaken conceptions of 
his work. You have often heard in what great error 
they were concerning his Messiahship. What pic- 
tures of temporal grandeur they drew ! a restored 
Israel, a rebuilt temple, a majestic kingdom ! They 
wanted him to go to Judea ; for what ? To set up a 
kingdom that should outstrip the world for greatness. 
What was the use of his miracle-power if he could 
not do something great ? Miracles ? He was using 
his power only to heal people and to feed them and 
calm them. Why not take the rule from the op- 
pressor ? Why not blast the intruder ? When they 
saw he would not do this, they did not believe in 
him. Ah, if they only had a kinsman who would 
do as they wished. If their ideas could be carried 
out, why, they would be princes and dukes, and live 
in palaces, and roll in luxury and abound in wealth. 
This was what they wanted. In place of power and 
grandeur and wealth and luxury, he was giving them 
self-denial and service. So they did not believe in 
him. 

You may trace a resemblance. Men compliment 
Jesus, they speak of his wonderful works, they ad- 
mire his character, they even profess his name and 
become of the body of his disciples and pay some re- 
gard to his institutions and ordinances. But some of 
his plainest commands are disregarded, some of his 
doctrines are pronounced uninviting, and some others 
are said to be out of date. Too much stress is laid 
upon self-denial, too much said about charity, too 
much importance attached to non-essential matters. 
It is folly to attempt so much as the gospel declares ; 
the Sabbath must not be too strictly kept ; the tithe 
is a matter of an exploded system ; the evangeliza- 
tion of the world is a ridiculous impossibility ; to say 
nothing of separation from the world, or of laying 
down life for men, or of bearing injustice and perse- 



196 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

cution with meekness, or of answering not again the 
voice of detraction. Oh, we are very much like his 
brethren. 

Do you say there is no such resemblance ? L,et me 
ask you, what is your conception of his work and 
mission ? No, not to the world, but to you ? Is it 
that you shall be saved ? Yes, but not all. It is not 
enough to be saved. His thought is to create within 
you his own image. What he intends you to be is a 
reproduction of himself. How shall he do that ? By 
setting you up in palatial grandeur, and minister- 
ing to your comfort and ease ? No, no. He begins 
by a process of excision. Before he builds up he 
must tear down. Before he fills you with himself, he 
must empty you of yourself. When he lays you down 
upon a bed of suffering, when he darkens your house, 
when he brings to you a cup of bitterness, when he 
destroys the fond idol of your life, when he breaks 
your heart and covers you with gloom, you cry out 
in the despairing tones of unbelief. Has he not told 
you, " In the world ye shall have tribulation " ? Has 
he not shown you the patent of heavenly nobility, 
the mark of divine sonship, not in sorrow, but in 
scourging ? Because you have not an unruffled joy, 
an abiding comfort, an unfailing prosperity, an an- 
swer to every temporal craving, the consummation of 
every heart-wish, shall you turn upon him as did 
his brethren, and say to him: u Thou art not what 
we thought, thou hast not fulfilled the measure of 
our hopes"? 

Suppose he did give you the wish of your heart, 
what manner of men would you be ? It is easy to 
say that you wish to be holy, undefiled, like unto 
him. The way to this is the path he trod. For you 
to be what you say is your wish, demands the denial 
of Capernaum and caviling Jerusalem, and the expe- 
riences of Gethsemane with its bloody sweat, and 
Calvary with its unspeakable agonies. Had you his 



UNBELIEVING BRETHREN 197 

power, what would you do with it ? He never used 
it for himself. He went hungry while he fed thou- 
sands, and while preparing a mansion for you in his 
father's house, had no place whereon to lay his head. 
Had you his power you would exert it for yourself or 
for those you love. Whose dead would you raise? 
Whose hunger would you first appease ? Whose eyes 
would you open ? He raised Lazarus, but Joseph he 
did not raise ; and while his last thoughts clustered 
around his mother he gave her into the hands of lov- 
ing charity. He never thought of self ; really, do we 
ever think of much else ? With the demolition of 
self, with the shattering of hopes, with the crown of 
suffering, recognize his faithfulness to his promise, 
and perceive the stately steppings of the King coming 
to his kingdom, set up in your own hearts. 

III. The remedy for this sad condition is an appre- 
hension of the fullness of the gospel. There is one 
text that gives me an immense comfort. It is in 
Acts, the first chapter and the fourteenth verse. When 
the Saviour's expiation for sin was made, when he 
had won his victory over the grave, after that he had 
ascended on high, then we read how the disciples, 
waiting for their enduement at Jerusalem, " continued 
with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the 
women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his 
brethren ." 

Ah, then they did believe at last ! After Geth- 
semane and Calvary and Olivet they found their 
hearts broken and they believed. Let us keep on 
with our preaching and let us be faithful in our tes- 
timony, and let us be not weary in our effort, the 
time will come when he that goeth forth with weep- 
ing will return rejoicing, bearing his sheaves with 
him. 

Understand the Christ of Calvary, and go and see the 
place where the Lord lay. That is the key of belief 
in him. So long as these brethren heard his sermons 



198 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

and saw his works, they found it not to their purpose 
to believe in him. But when they saw the cross, 
that was too much for them. My hope for you is in 
the cross. I do not wonder at your being confused 
and undecided so long as you think of his teachings, 
matchless as they are. These sayings of his do 
trouble ; they amaze, they invite to disputations, and 
they tempt to explanations, that the keenness of their 
edge shall be somewhat dulled and be so fitted to our 
understanding. When there comes to you some say- 
ing more forceful than usual, you say, " This is a 
hard saying, who can understand it?" and you keep 
quiet until you think you can understand it. When 
there comes to you a pointed exhortation, you say, 
" No one is able to do such things," and you lay it 
aside until you think you can. The result is, a be- 
lief of a general sort, with much misgiving and with 
little power and with less joy and peace. But when 
following him, though like Peter, u afar off," you see 
him uncomplaining, pierced through and uplifted as 
a spectacle of shame, with death creeping over his 
features, and the head that was always an invitation 
to trust, bowing into unconsciousness, with eyes no 
longer mellow and tear- wet, and lips no more opening 
with gracious words, you find another train of thought 
quickened within your minds. Do you remember 
that while he was teaching his disciples, men said 
" Rabbi," or " Master " ? That meant Teacher. But 
afterward men said " Lord." That meant Ruler, 
King. Once in awhile, under some strong experi- 
ence, when drawn into a foretaste of what was com- 
ing in its fullness, and when the emotions were 
strongly stirred and the spiritual became dominant 
over the fleshly, they said " Lord." As, when under 
its subtle influence the desire to know how to pray 
took hold upon them, or as when they felt the power 
of the ever-living bread, they addressed him as Lord, 
and begged to be taught how to pray, or to be filled 



UNBELIEVING BRETHREN 199 

with such bread. But after , the ascension it was 
" Lord " all the time, and strengthened as the " Lord 
Christ" or the " Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" Oh, 
Calvary was a great illumination to men's intellects ! 

If you are content with him as a teacher only, it is 
not surprising that you will reserve your opinion 
upon some things, or counsel about them, or desire 
further light. But if he is to you a Lord, a King, 
you will do what he says. If he appoints to you 
sorrow and disappointment, it is the Lord, and he 
may do as he lists. He bids you follow no different 
path from that he himself has trodden. He makes 
you a partaker of his own sufferings. Where you 
began as an endorser of his maxims, a student of his 
philosophy, you end as a servant doing his will. He 
who can die for you, can be more easily obeyed and 
followed than he who came to teach you of mighty 
and wondrous things. He who has bought you is 
more than he who has taught you. 

So what you want, brother, is not more informa- 
tion, not more argument, not more explanation. You 
want your heart broken. Oh, we go about seeking 
and digging up the remains of buried centuries, and 
exhuming treasures of learning out of accumulated 
piles of ruins, and with pride point to them and 
challenge doubt and unbelief. We have enough. 
The heart is not going to melt before these silent and 
unimpeachable witnesses to the truth of the Son of 
God. No preacher can melt the heart. No witness 
can do aught but condemn the flinty nature. The 
cross breaks down our opposition. The cross breaks 
up the stony indifference. What the world needs 
is not more knowledge about the Christ of God ; 
it needs to look upon him dying for its sin and 
misery. That is the antidote for all unbelief in 
its varying shades and forms. Especially is it the an- 
tidote for unbelief where it creeps into the hearts of 
those who know him best. " Behold the Lamb of 



200 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

God that taketh away the sin of the world " ; and 
takes away no sin so effectually as that one great 
damning sin, the sin of unbelief. It was that which 
our Lord himself declared the source of condemna- 
tion, and taking away that he removes all. 



Z. T. Leavell was born in Pontotoc County, Miss., on the 
30th of August, 1847. Attended the University of Mississippi. 
Was three years a student in the Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary. Has preached in Dalton, Ga. , Murfreesboro, Tenn., 
Columbus, Ky., Oxford, Natchez, and Clinton, Miss. Was two 
years financial secretary of Mississippi College, and five years 
president of Carrollton Female College, Carrollton, Mississippi. 
Mississippi College conferred upon him the degree of d.d. in 
1895. He is a man of singular piety and fraternal spirit. 




Z. T. Leavell, D. D. 



XVIII 

THE TRIAL OF FAITH 1 

BY Z. T. LEAVELL, D. D. 

" That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold 
that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and 
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." I Peter I : 7. 

SURELY there is not a blessing which we receive 
at the hands of our Heavenly Father that is less 
appreciated by us than the trial of our faith. It 
comes to us like the rainy day. There is no one of 
us who likes the rainy day, with its cloud above and 
its discomfort beneath. But we all rejoice in the 
effects of the showers, as they make the earth " bring 
forth and bud," and give u seed to the sower and 
bread to the eater." So of the trial God makes of our 
faith ; it has much that is disagreeable, but we all re- 
joice in the fruitage it may bring. We may come 
out of it in every way purer and stronger in the Lord. 
In the trial God makes of our faith we should see 
the manifestation of his goodness. He would have us 
understand that he is simply purposing our welfare, 
and that he does not chastise us in anger. He says, 
" Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, 
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory"; and "we know that all things 
work together for good to them that love God. ! ' In 
this connection it is said, " Though now for a season, 
if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold 
temptations." More tenderly it would be impossible 

1 Preached in Trinity Methodist Church during the Jubilee Session of 
the Southern Baptist Convention. 

201 



202 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

to speak. The loving kindness of our Lord, declared 
in these and kindred passages, may be discerned by 
all whose faith he puts to the test. 

There are many ways in which God tries the Chris- 
tian's faith. 

He sometimes does this by permitting us to go our 
own way. Most people get obstinate now and then, 
however meek their natures may be. They become 
weary of the performance of duties that follow each 
other in dull routine, or they are tempted to seek 
those; things not for their good. Our desires are often 
exceedingly hard to control. Some bright, dazzling 
object, alluring and fascinating, is beheld by us. It 
seems to be the one object above all others that would 
gratify us. More ardent grows the desire until we 
are permitted to have the object, which we find fire 
in our possession. Happy are we if thereby we are 
purged of the dross which was the cause of our temp- 
tation. 

Sometimes God tries the Christian's faith by more 
severe means. The trial is not simply a permission to 
go into the fire ; he puts us into it. By a gradual pro- 
cess it may be we become so much enamored by the 
things of time and sense, as to lose interest in spiritual 
things and the things that make for our peace. The 
soul woos and sometimes weds that which God hates. 
It goes like Samson into Philistia, seeking pleasure 
rather than worshiping God. The Lord our God is a 
jealous God and can suffer no such wandering from 
himself without using the necessary means to bring 
us back to our first love. We are told that gold is 
exceedingly fond of quicksilver. When the two 
come together there is nothing that can separate them 
but extreme heat. So our souls become so intermin- 
gled with the things of time and sense, that God 
must turn extreme heat upon us that we may be 
severed from our sordid attachments and return to 
him. 



THE TRIAL OF FAITH 203 

God sometimes tries our faith by disappointments. 
There is a constantly recurring pain in a series of 
disappointments. Everything we attempt fails of the 
measure of success we wished and had expected. In- 
significant, trifling circumstances persist in coming 
between us and the realization of that for which our 
soul longs ; and this state of things goes on until our 
patience becomes exhausted, and our hearts grow 
sick of our fruitless search after gain, and we turn to 
God for solace. They tell us that in every ton of sea 
water there is just one grain of gold. By putting a 
ton of sea water just at the boiling point, the water 
becomes vapor, and the grain of gold is left. So God 
sometimes extracts the one grain of gold in the Chris- 
tian's nature. He is subjected to the heat, and the 
foreign matter vanishes and the golden grain is left 
in his presence. 

God tries the Christian's faith again by prosperity. 
This is the severest test. There is nothing harder for 
a Christian to endure. It is far more damaging to 
Christian character than affliction or loss. He who 
can stand with folded arms in mute resignation by 
the pale form of a loved one and lift his tear-bathed 
face to heaven with the silent prayer to God in his 
heart, " Thy will be done," is overthrown at once by 
prosperity. Prosperity naturally puts one in the 
ways of the world, and he readily takes to them. 
Gold earth is sometimes washed in a little rocker like 
a child's cradle. It is an easy swinging process ; 
noiseless and sleep-provoking. There is a bar in the 
rocker over which the dross passes and against which 
the gold gathers. So God sometimes gets at the gold 
in his people. They are rocked back and forth in the 
cradle of prosperity. Thanks be to his name, there 
are some who can endure this test. We have many 
noble-hearted ones whose piety suffers no diminution 
by the enlarged prosperity God awards them, and who 
feel that they are but the trustees of the Lord, hold- 



204 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

ing the means put into their hands for the advance- 
ment of his glory. 

But why does God try the Christian's faith ? Why 
not let his children go to heaven " on flowery beds of 
ease," instead of subjecting them to constant trials? 
There must be good reasons for the tests to which he 
compels their faith. Not only does God afflict for 
our profit, but for the strengthening of that within 
us that is most profitable for the life here and here- 
after. He tries us that " the proof of our faith may 
appear more precious than refined gold that is tested 
by fire," as the Syriac translation puts it. The proof 
of our faith, or our tested faith, is more precious than 
refined gold. It will be very difficult to make the 
world see this, but it is true. Some men contemn 
Christianity because it lays so much stress on faith. 
But strong, tested faith is basal in human happiness 
and usefulness. Such a faith gives no room in the 
mind for distrust. Faith in the soul gives what no 
external circumstances can bring. You have doubt- 
less read that beautiful little poem written by Mrs. 
Hemans, which portrays the King of England after 
his only son was drowned : 

He sat when festal bowls went round, 

He heard the minstrel sing, 
He saw the tourney victor crowned 

Amid the mighty ring. 
But a murmur of the restless deep 

Was blent on every strain, 
A voice of wind that would not sleep ; 

He never smiled again. 

His external circumstances were perfect, and yet 
so indescribably sad was he that not even a smile 
was seen upon his face after his great bereavement. 

But faith is a fundamental principle in the happi- 
ness of the many as well as the individual. It gives 
cement to the compact of society. Let us see how 



THE TRIAL OF FAITH 205 

this is. Conceive of a community of people living 
together in neighborly proximity utterly destitute 
of faith in each other. Neither man, woman, nor 
child has any faith in any other of the entire popula- 
tion. The conception puts before us a condition of 
extremest anarchy. You might take all the gold of 
Ophir and empty it into the laps of that people, and 
it would not produce happiness. A tested faith in 
the affairs of life and much more in religion is as an 
element so basic that naught can surpass it in value. 

Again, a tested faith has an absolute intrinsic 
worth which gold has not. The lack of established 
intrinsic worth in gold and silver gives the problem 
with which statesmen have to grapple in settling the 
question of the day. How can a parity of coinage 
be secured so long as the metals fluctuate in amount 
and so in value ? This question of parity between 
the metals is a question that might be settled if their 
intrinsic worth could be determined by their amount 
being constant and known. But a tested faith has 
an absolute intrinsic worth. Its value is inherent, 
independent of outward conditions. Large incre- 
ment of it not only does not depreciate its value, but 
increases it. The more of it there is the more it is 
worth. Let it be multiplied till countless multitudes 
possess it and its worth has been magnified in that 
God's praises are sung over all the earth and the best 
of happiness is insured for his people. 

Once more, a tested faith is eternal, and gold is 
not. Let it be known that the discovery of America 
was a financial necessity. At the time America was 
discovered there was only a sufficiency of gold gotten 
from the mines of the Old World to repair the loss 
in handling and manufacture. There was no in- 
crease in the amount of gold in the world because of 
the natural waste of the precious metal. There is 
no waste in the using of a tried faith in God. On 
the contrary, the more it is used the larger it is. Nor 

s 



206 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

will the fires of the last great day melt it nor depre- 
ciate its value. It will go beyond the things of time 
and sense into the world of unfading light and shine 
with undimmed lustre after the earth has dissolved in 
fervid heat. 

But this is only a subjective view of the worth of 
a faith tried and tested by the Lord in the ordeals of 
life. Our text paraphrased, says that the proof of 
our faith may appear more precious than refined gold 
that is tested by fire unto glory and honor and praise 
at the manifestation of Jesus the world's Redeemer. 
We are told that he is coming a second time to mani- 
fest his glory. When he comes the tried faith of his 
people will appear to his praise and honor and majesty. 
In our happiest spiritual moods we wish to do some- 
thing to show our gratitude to our Saviour for what 
he has done for us. This is the spiritual outgoing of 
the generous soul. Much may be done in many lines 
of effort to show this gratitude. We are blessed with 
a broad field over which we may perform the labors 
of love. But in nothing can we glorify our Master 
better than to submit to the purifying, polishing tests 
that are made of our faith. When Christ shall come 
to make up his jewels our proven faith will appear to 
his praise and honor and glory. It is not so much 
what we do, as what we are, that heaven takes delight 
in. It is the development of the soul gotten in labor 
that Christ wants more than the labor itself. Before 
the angels our Saviour shall have praise and adora- 
tion not for what we have done, but what we are, 
standing in the grand review with a faith so shaped 
by the discipline of human life as to elicit their 
admiration. Then let us kiss the rod that smites us 
and patiently wait till the coming morn of the resur- 
rection to glorify our Saviour with a faith that is per- 
fect and complete. 

Our tried faith shall be to the praise of our Saviour. 
It is to the praise of the United States that we do 



THE TRIAL OF FAITH 207 

not have our currency in gold ore and bullion. Our 
gold eagle has passed its ordeal of heat and the die, 
and comes forth most shapely current coin of the 
realm. And it shall be to the praise of our Lord 
that we do not appear at the last day in a crude state, 
but that we have passed our ordeal, and have come 
through it shapely and with the image of our adora- 
ble Lord stamped on us, so that when he shall appear 
we shall be like him. 

At the last great day our tried faith shall be an honor 
to Christ. It is an honor to the refiner that he takes 
the gold in its original condition, with sixty per cent, of 
adulteration, and brings it out twenty- four carats fine. 
And before God's assembled hosts it shall be to the 
honor of Christ that he has taken humanity with all 
its adulterations, u dead in trespasses and in sins," and 
made it meet for an inheritance in the world of light. 
It is said that the question shall be asked of some 
who shall appear in that day of accounts, " Who are 
these ? " The answer shall be given, " These are they 
that have come up through great tribulation, and 
washed their robes and made them white in the blood 
of the Lamb." 

Finally, the proven faith of the Christian shall in 
the judgment day be the glory of Christ. What is 
England's glory? It is not in the fact that the sun 
never sets on its broad empire. It is not in her great 
bank, though it is true that there is nowhere else such 
wealth. England's glory is in England's purified, re- 
fined intelligence — in England's Disraelis and Glad- 
stones, her Miltons and Tennysons, her Spurgeons 
and Wesleys. 

In the day of assize the glory of our Saviour will 
not be in the fact that he is one with the Father and 
was present when our world was made, when the 
morning stars sang together ; but his glory will be in 
the purified ones who stand ready to enter a world of 
unfading light and unbroken love. 



208 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

What a support is such a faith in the trying emer- 
gencies of life. It is a staff on which the soul may 
lean ; it is an anchor when tempests rage without. 
And how dark is death without it. How dreary the 
last moments of life to one who cannot rest his weary 
head by faith on the bosom of his God ! How sweet 
and cheerful its presence to the departing Christian ! 
I have stood and looked at the evening star as it has 
sunk beneath the western horizon. I have seen it as 
it has gone down in darkness, and left the world in 
deeper darkness, and have thought, how much like the 
death of the one who faces the last issue of life with- 
out faith in God through Christ. It is a going down 
in darkness to leave the world with no ray of light 
cast back for those left behind. I have taken pleasure 
in looking on the morning star. I have seen it as it 
has risen over the eastern hills. I have seen it as it 
has faded away in the brighter light of the glorious 
sun of day, and I have thought, how much like the 
death of the Christian. No going out in darkness to 
leave the world in gloom, but a fading away in the 
light of the Sun of Righteousness. God grant a 
saving faith to all whose eyes fall on these printed 
pages, as a support in life, a solace in death, and as a 
watchword at the portals of eternal bliss. 



M. B. Wharton is a native of Virginia, and was converted 
in Alexandria at the age of eighteen. He is a graduate of 
Richmond College. The degree of d. d. was conferred upon 
him by Washington and Lee University. Dr. Wharton has 
served some of the largest churches of the Baptist denomina- 
tion South, and has throughout been identified with its general 
work. With a bright intellect, fine oratorical power, rich im- 
agination, extraordinary memory, and a good degree of energy, 
he has always succeeded. Wide reading, close study of men, 
and extensive travel, have made him a man of varied gifts. 
Besides conspicuous success as a preacher and pastor, he has 
achieved distinction as an author. He is at present pastor of 
the Fremason Street Baptist Church, Norfolk, Va., the largest 
Baptist church in that growing seaport city. 




M. B. Wharton, U. D. 



XIX 1 
the RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 

BY M. B. WHARTON, D. D. 

" Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord." John 20 : 20. 

SOME years ago, while spending the summer at 
Tallulah Falls, Georgia, amid scenery as grand 
and picturesque as any to be found this side the Alps, 
I had descended to the " Grand Chasm," fifteen hun- 
dred feet deep, through which flows Tallulah River 
with its wonderful cataracts. Lying down upon one 
of the large flat rocks so common on the sides of that 
stream, and looking upward through solid granite 
gorges and over lofty and frightful precipices, I asked 
a skeptical companion, " Who made all this?" My 
friend responded, " God made all this; only God 
could make it ; and if you will only convince me of 
the resurrection of Jesus Christ I will be a Christian. 
That is the tunnel which, once cut through these 
granite formations that speak so eloquently of God, 
every train of Bible thought and doctrine could pass 
successfully through. Do not preach of God ; the 
whole earth is full of his glory, but preach of the res- 
urrection of Jesus Christ." 

He was right as to the importance of this subject. 
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the pivotal truth 
of Christianity, the basal principle around which all 
its doctrines resolve. The word of God declares this 
in no uncertain language. Preaching is important, 

1 Delivered at Calvary Baptist Church, Washington, D. C, during the 
Jubilee Session of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

209 



2IO THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

and the congregations of Washington are all aglow 
to-day as representatives of our Convention are hold- 
ing forth to them the word of life. From the time of 
Christ to the present moment the world has been 
swayed by earnest preaching, and to take away 
preaching is like robbing the world of light which 
enables men to know each other, work, and live. 
But u if Christ be not risen then is our preaching 
vain." Faith is important, indispensable to our hap- 
piness, enables us to overcome the world ; millions 
have died in it, and millions would die for it ; but 
44 if Christ be not raised your faith is vain." Sin is 
an awful thing, the author of all the woes burdened 
with which the whole creation groaneth and tra- 
vaileth in pain together until now ; but if Christ be 
not risen 44 ye are yet in your sins." So that the 
most important question we can consider this morn- 
ing is the resurrection of Christ. And I think I am 
prepared to show that he did arise, that our preaching 
is not vain ; your faith not vain ; you are not in your 
sins ; but may joyfully exclaim, 44 Blessed be the God 
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which accord- 
ing to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again 
unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ 
from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and 
undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in 
heaven for you who are kept by the power of God 
through faith unto salvation. " I do not know a more 
appropriate text to guide in the discussion than the 
one announced : 44 Then were the disciples glad when 
they saw the Lord." Just two questions are sug- 
gested : 

i. Did the disciples see the Lord ? 

2. Why were they glad when they saw him? 

First, we have in proof of the resurrection of 
Christ, presumptions arising from the empty grave. 
While infidels deny the resurrection of Christ, they 
have never denied that he died ; on the contrary, they 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 211 

have thrown it up to Christians as an opprobrium that 
their divine leader had to die. They cannot see how- 
it was that he was compelled to die to save a lost and 
ruined world, and say his death was a refutation of 
his claim. Neither do they deny that his grave was 
found empty on the third day. Had it not been 
empty his enemies would have produced the body to 
show that the story of the resurrection was false. 
The fact that the grave was empty gives a strong pre- 
sumption in favor of his resurrection. If he did not 
rise his body must have been stolen by his disciples. 
Men do not rob graves without some selfish purpose 
in view. The body of A. T. Stewart was stolen 
that a large sum might be obtained for its restor- 
ation. But why should the disciples have wished 
by stealing the body of Jesus to perpetuate an 
imposture which was costing them their property 
and their lives ? They cannot be supposed to have 
been so foolish as that course would indicate. But 
if, in order to palm off a false story, thus expen- 
sive to themselves, they had wished to rob the grave 
they could not have done so. They were a weak 
and timid set, one denying the Saviour before a ser- 
vant girl, and all forsaking him in presence of his 
enemies. Would those men have attempted to face 
a guard of Roman soldiers when they knew that death 
would be the consequence ? But the story went out 
that the body was stolen while the soldiers were 
asleep. Roman soldiers never slept on their posts. 
When in Pompeii, my guide at the Hercu'aneum 
gate showed me a sentry box in which the skeleton 
remains of a Roman soldier were found. He was 
placed on duty on that ever-memorable night, and 
while the flood of lava was pouring on the city, while 
men and women were flying, he kept his post, and 
more than seventeen hundred years afterward was 
found, one hand over his mouth to keep out the dust 
and ashes, and the other grasping his rusty sword. 



212 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

No, these Roman soldiers did not sleep on their posts. 
Augustine well says, " If they were asleep, how could 
they testify that the disciples stole the body? " for no 
man can testify to what happens while he is asleep. 

But we are not left to presumptions but have the 
testimony of the apostles. This testimony is of the 
most incontrovertible kind, whether we consider the 
nature and number of the witnesses, the facts they 
testified to, the places where they deposed, or the time 
when their statements were made. Who were these 
witnesses? Not scholars, theorists, and philosophers. 
Not men of such great ability as to be able to make 
u the worse appear the better reason, " but unlearned 
Galilean fishermen and tentmakers, who had never 
been known to advance an idea they had not received 
from some one else. How many of these witnesses 
were there ? The principle has been laid down that 
in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word 
may be established. We have here not two or three, 
but many hundreds. He was seen of Mary Magdalene, 
of the two disciples whose hearts burned within them 
as they conversed with him on the way to Emmaus. 
He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve ; after 
that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at 
once ; . . . after that he was seen of James ; then of 
all the apostles ; " and last of all," says Paul, " he was 
seen of me also, as of one born out of due time." We 
can think of not less than ten occasions when Christ 
was seen by different persons after his resurrection 
from the dead, all of the witnesses testifying to the 
one simple, unvarnished, tangible fact, that Christ 
had risen from the dead. 

Where did they tell this story ? Was it in a for- 
eign land? Was it among a heathen people who 
might be willing to believe a fanciful report, and who 
had no means of investigating its truth or falsehood ? 
No, they told this wondrous story at Jerusalem where 
the terrible deed of the crucifixion had taken place. 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 213 

They told it on the very spot where he had been con- 
demned, where scribes and Pharisees had hounded 
him to death ; they told it over the empty grave in 
which his body had been deposited. 

When did they tell it? Did they wait until the 
popular mind had turned to other subjects? Shrewd 
lawyers ask for time when they have a bad case on 
their hands. Grant them time enough, and they can 
save almost any one from the gallows, for they know 
that 

As from the wing no scar the sky retains, 
The parted wave no furrow from the keel, 
So dies in human hearts the thought of death. 

These witnesses might have waited for five or ten 
years and had a better chance of palming off upon the 
people the story of a resurrection that never occurred. 
But they did not wait to tell the truth. They told it 
as soon as he had risen, within three days of the time 
that he was buried, while the people who slew him 
were still filled with rage against him, and while the 
cruel cross was still stained with his blood. 

To whom did they tell it ? To peasants, to strangers 
not interested in the wondrous details, to each other ? 
They told it to all who listened — to Jews, heathen, 
to magistrates before whom they were summoned, to 
governors, to Caesar himself. They told this story 
when they knew they would be despised, imprisoned, 
tortured, and crucified for its telling. 

Could it have been anything else than a true story? 
Was such testimony ever rejected in an earthly court 
on any other subject ? One day in Montgomery, Ala., 
I was approached by a prominent lawyer who said, 
" If you will prove to me that Jesus Christ rose from 
the dead, I will become a Christian and join your 
church." " What sort of evidence do you wish?" I 
asked. He replied, " I will take any good evidence 
such as would be admitted by our courts." " Very 



214 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

well," said I ; " who is your greatest authority on evi- 
dence?" He replied, "Greenleaf." "If Greenleaf 
should pronounce the evidence good, you will be satis- 
fied, will you ? " He responded, " I will." " Then I 
must tell you," I said, " that Greenleaf not only wrote 
his great work on 'The Law of Evidence,' but in 1846 
he published an l Examination of the Testimony 
of the Four Evangelists, by the Rules of Evi- 
dence as Administered in Courts of Justice, with 
an Account of the Trial of Jesus,' in which he says 
that the testimony in behalf of the resurrection of 
Jesus is so conclusive that no twelve sane jurors in the 
world could do otherwise than pronounce in favor of 
it." Still he did not yield, for, 

Convince a man against his will 
He's of the same opinion still. 

We have still further in favor of the resurrection of 
Christ what may be styled demonstrations. The Holy 
Spirit came down to assist the apostles in preaching 
the doctrine of the resurrection. Behold that great 
assembly on the day of Pentecost, an audience of 
many thousands, consisting of Jews and strangers. 
This vast audience was addressed by men unlettered 
and unknown. What did they say? "You think we 
are fanatics and madmen ; that we are endeavoring 
to palm off an imposture upon you all ; that we 
are liars, who say we have seen a man whom we have 
not seen, eaten with a man with whom we have not 
eaten, touched and handled a man who has no exist- 
ence. You think we are such fools as to tell these 
stories at the expense of our fortunes and our lives ; 
but we are going to convince you to-day. Bring forth 
your sick and afflicted and we will heal them in proof 
of the resurrection. We will give hearing to the 
deaf, sight to the blind, life to the dead. We, illiterate 
mechanics, who cannot speak our own mother tongue 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 215 

correctly, will talk to all of you, Medes, Elamites, Mes- 
opotamians, Cappadocians, Phrygians, Pamphylians, 
Romans, Cretes, Arabians, in your own tongues ; we 
will speak to you in the polished and polite languages 
of the earth." And thus they did, when three thou- 
sand of the very men who had taken and with wicked 
hands slain the Saviour were cut to the heart and 
converted. The evidence is so irrefragable that the 
great wonder is that all did not believe in the resur- 
rection of Christ. But there are still people who do 
not believe the world is round, but flat. Multitudes 
believe that the sun moves. Why is it that men do 
not believe in the emblematic resurrection — im- 
mersion ? This liquid grave was ordained as an em- 
blem of the place where the L,ord lay, " Know ye not, 
that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ 
were baptized into his death ? Therefore we are buried 
with him by baptism into death : that like as Christ 
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the 
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of 
his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resur- 
rection." Why do not men believe in the monu- 
mental resurrection? Here is a grand monument on 
the banks of the Potomac, one of the tallest shafts in 
the world, commemorative of the man who won the 
proudest and the finest of all earthly titles — Father of 
his country. His name is not on it, but you know it 
is Washington's monument But in the holy Sabbath 
we have a tall, white, graceful monument to the res- 
urrection of Christ ; his name is on it; it was changed 
to and called " the Lord's Day," because Christ rose 
on it And yet there are millions who do not believe 
in it, and millions more who do not keep it holy. 
Oh, it is true, gloriously true, forever true, that the 
disciples saw the Lord ; but 

2. Why were they glad when they saw him? (1) 
They were glad just as you and I would be glad in 



2l6 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

meeting a dear friend whom we had supposed dead. 
I was at Monteagle, Tenn. , a few years ago. A lady 
received a telegram that her brother was dying ; how 
great was her distress ! She sped to his home in 
anguish and tears. On reaching the spot she was glad 
to see him restored — not dead, but living. I was 
standing at a railroad depot in the South, just after 
the war, conversing with one who had been a general 
in that hard-fought struggle. As the train drew up, a 
young man stood upon the platform who, as soon as he 
saw the general, leaped into his arms. The general 
exclaimed, u Oh, William, my son, I am so glad to 
see you," and he wept tears of joy. Turning to the 
crowd he said, u This young man was on my staff, 
and I saw him killed, as I thought, on the field of 
battle, and now to think he is alive." He was glad 
when he saw him. The disciples, many of whom did 
not know that Christ would rise, had seen him laid 
in the grave ; the three days had been days of sorrow 
and gloom. Now that he had come forth no words 
could express their joy at seeing him whom they loved 
with all the devotion of their ardent natures. 

But they were glad because Christianity had stood 
the severe test to which it had been subjected. Christ 
was frequently asked to give a sign to the people, 
which he refused to do. " He answered and said unto 
them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after 
a sign ; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the 
sign of the prophet Jonas : for as Jonas was three 
days and three nights in the whale's belly ; so shall 
the Son of man be three days and three nights in the 
heart of the earth." All this had come true. He 
had entered the mansion of the dead, " and struggling 
there and in his grave clothes with the tyrant had 
wrested from his brow his black diadem, wrenched 
from his hand his cruel sceptre, shivered at a blow 
his skeleton empire, and rising brought life and im- 
mortality to light." 



THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 217 

They were glad for another great reason. They 
saw in the resurrection of Christ an earnest of their 
own resurrection. We love our bodies, though they 
may not always be lovable to others. We are fond 
of these tenements where our immortal spirits dwell, 
these caskets which contain the precious jewels of 
our souls. We love the bodies of our friends and 
loved ones here. Sad indeed is the moment when 
we put them into silence and darkness ; sadder still 
the thought of their moulding to decay and dust. 
But Christ's resurrection gives us the assurance that 
these bodies will be ours again and as immortal as our 
souls. " Christ the firstfruits and afterward they 
that are Christ's at his coming." We look with pity 
on those who have no such hopes. 

Alas for him who never sees 
The stars shine through his cypress trees, 
Who hopeless lays his dead away, 
Nor looks to see the breaking day 
About the mournful marble play; 
Who has not felt in hours of faith, 
The truth to flesh and sense unknown, 
That life is ever lord of death, 
And love can never lose its own. 

They were glad because now the sting of death 
was forever taken away. Up to that moment he was 
the king of terrors. Henceforth he could be wel- 
comed as a friend, and all because of this conquest of 
Jesus. The thoughts henceforth which a Christian 
should indulge in his expiring moments would be not 
those of dread of this ghastly monarch, but of praise 
to the heavenly Conqueror who had delivered him 
from his power. No wonder he shouts : " The sting 
of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law. 
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ." A lady visiting the 
Paris Exposition lay dying in her hotel far away from 

T 



2l8 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

her home and the friends of her youth. Watchers 
stood around anxious to catch any word which might 
escape her lips. At last they heard her whisper, 
" Bring." They placed her child by her side. She 
still said, "Bring." They brought her flowers and 
refreshing water. They were puzzled to know what 
she meant. At last summoning all her strength, 
while a smile played over her face, she exclaimed : 

Bring forth the royal diadem 
And crown him Lord of all, 

and so expired in the arms of him who died for her 
and rose again. 

They were glad because heaven was assured to 
them. Had that stone not been rolled away from the 
door of the sepulchre, there had been no admittance 
through the gates of light ; had Christ remained in 
the grave, no human soul had- ever entered heaven. 
The heavenly inheritance is a reward for his rising. 
Standing by his grave he said : " Touch me not; for I 
am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my 
brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, 
and your Father ; and to my God, and your God." 
And he did ascend, escorted by a company of angels 
to the right hand of the Father. Where our Forerun- 
ner has gone we shall go. He has gone to make 
ready for our coming. He says, " In my Father's 
house are many mansions. . . I go to prepare a 
place for you, . . that where I am, there ye may be 
also." 

Lastly, they were glad because now they might 
look forward to the universal triumph of the gospel. 
With such a doctrine as that attested by such proofs 
the word of God must of necessity grow and multi- 
ply. All that was necessary was to tell the story. 
This they did. They ran from one to another with 
the glad news, and " the voice of rejoicing and salva- 
tion was in the tabernacles of the righteous." 






THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST 2ig 

We of the Southern Baptist Convention have been 
telling this story for fifty years. During this time 
we have raised one million five hundred thousand 
dollars, and sent forth nearly four hundred mission- 
aries to foreign lands, to say nothing of native assist- 
ants and work done among the people in our great 
country. L,et us continue to tell it with unwonted 
zeal and interest till China shall become a celestial 
empire indeed, till u Ethiopia shall stretch forth her 
hands unto God " ; till Japan shall go forth conquer- 
ing in a holy war ; till Mexico, Italy, and Brazil shall 
escape the fetters of superstition, 

And Cuba, fair Cuba, the queen of Antilles, 

No longer by minions of popery awed, 
Comes sweet as her roses and pure as her lilies, 

To be crowned by her Saviour, Redeemer, and Lord ; 
Till from scarlet adornments as venal as bright, 
She turns to be clothed with the garments of light. 

Yea, let us tell this wondrous story "till the dwell- 
ers on the hills and in the vales shout to each other, 
and the mountain tops from distant mountains catch 
the flying joy — till nation after nation taught the 
strain, earth rolls the rapturous hosanna round. ' ' 



XX 

THE FIRST RESURRECTION * 

BY REV. J. L. WHITE 

" But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were 
finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath 
part in the first resurrection : on such the second death hath no power, but 
they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a 
thousand years." Rev. 20 : 5, 6. 

THE doctrine of the resurrection is fundamental. 
Paul says, ' c But if there be no resurrection of 
the dead, then is Christ not risen : and if Christ be 
not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith 
is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of 
God ; because we have testified of God that he raised 
up Christ : whom he raised not up, if so be that 
the dead rise not. . . And if Christ be not raised, 
your faith is vain ; ye are yet in your sins. Then 
they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are 
perished. . . But now is Christ risen from the dead, 
and become the firstfruits of them that slept." Our 
preaching is not vain, our faith is not vain, our sins 
can be forgiven, our hope is steadfast. 

This doctrine will never lose its sweetness as long 
as death follows life. It will be a consolation to the 
mother who watches her babe lowered into the grave, 
to the child who holds the hand of the precious mother 
till it is cold in death. That is a beautiful thought 
of the Israelites. As they enter the vault, taking a 
turf of grass, they wave it over their heads saying in 

1 Preached at Vermont Avenue Christian Church, Washington, D. C, 
during the Jubilee Session of the Southern Baptist Convention. 
220 




Rev. J. L. White. 



J. L. White was born September 6, 1862, in Forsyth County, 
N. C. He was converted at sixteen years of age, and at seven- 
teen was making a reputation in his State as " the boy preacher." 
Was graduated from Wake Forest College June, 1886, receiv- 
ing the A. m. degree. While in college he was successively 
debater and orator, and at his graduation was valedictorian of 
his class. His first pastorate was the First Baptist Church, 
Raleigh, N. C. He has since served the church at Elizabeth 
City, First Church, Durham, First Church, Ashville, N. C. ; and 
on February 1, became pastor of the First Church, Macon, Ga. 
In all of these charges he has been eminently successful, hun- 
dreds having been inducted into the membership, and the zeal 
and efficiency of the churches greatly promoted. He is in great 
demand for evangelistic service. To his own gifts is added 
those of his wife, to whom he was married in 1886. She is a 
woman of many excellencies of character and marked consecra- 
tion to Christ. 



THE FIRST RESURRECTION 221 

chorus, " Thy bones shall flourish like the grass ; oh, 
yes, my brother, thy bones shall flourish like the 
grass." Holding God's word in my hand, I proclaim, 
Resurrection ! Resurrection ! 

There are to be two resurrections : one of the just, 
one of the unjust. These shall occur at different 
times with an interval of one thousand years. The 
first is the resurrection of the bodies of the just ; the 
second is the raising of the wicked dead, or the resur- 
rection unto judgment. 

There is quite a difference of opinion as to what 
the first resurrection is. Some commentators, notably 
Albert Barnes, hold the opinion that the first resur- 
rection is the resurrection of principles — of patience, 
courage, boldness, and constancy of the ancient 
martyrs. Mr. Barnes says that these principles have 
been buried. Surely this great man looked on the 
dark side. He is wide of the mark. There are as 
true men and women living to-day as the world has 
ever seen. Thousands would not count their lives 
dear were there occasions for testing their fidelity to 
Christ by trials. It is not then a resurrection of vir- 
tues. 

Some few hold that the first resurrection means 
regeneration. There are many difficulties attending 
this rendering which are insurmountable. The lan- 
guage of the text forbids such a translation. "EZyeav, 
u they lived," is never applied in the New Testa- 
ment to the soul disembodied, but to man in his com- 
plete condition of the body, soul, and spirit. "A^daraaiq^ 
" first resurrection," defines the living to be bodily 
reanimation, and the word always signifies in the 
New Testament, corporeal resurrection. The text 
teaches that there are to be two literal resurrections 
of the dead. 

I. The just shall rise first. The text is sufficient 
proof. But the belief in the doctrine does not rest 
solely on this one passage. The interpretation of this 



222 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

Scripture is in line with, and gives special and beau- 
tiful significance to many otherwise inexplicable 
declarations in the word of God. 

i. The righteous shall be raised at Christ's second 
coming (i Cor. 15 : 23). " But every man in his own 
order ; Christ the firstfruits ; afterward, they that are 
Christ's at his coming." 

A different order in the resurrection is declared, 
and only those who are Christ's are to be raised at 
this time of his coming again. This is in perfect 
harmony with the blessed truth of the Lamb's mar- 
riage which shall occur at his second appearing (1 
Thess. 4 : 14-17). In these verses there is no mention 
of but one class being raised, " those which sleep in 
Jesus will God bring with him." " For the Lord 
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with 
the voice of the archangel and with the trump of 
God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then 
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord 
in the air ;« and so shall we ever be with the Lord. ' ' 
Blessed consummation of our hopes ! Awakened out 
of sleep to behold our dear Lord and to enter into 
his joys ! This is the peculiar honor of the redeemed. 
The rest of the dead, those who die without hope, 
live not for a thousand years. 

2. Jesus made a sharp distinction between the 
general resurrection of the dead and the resurrection 
which some should be accounted worthy to attain to. 
In Luke 14 : 13, 14, Christ says, " But when thou 
makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, 
the blind, and thou shalt be blessed ; for they cannot 
recompense thee : for thou shalt be recompensed at 
the resurrection of the just" Does our Lord teach 
only the resurrection of the just? No, verily. He 
explicitly teaches that all shall rise. Most certainly, 
however, he separates the dead, declaring a resurrec- 
tion of the just at a time distinct from that of those 



THE FIRST RESURRECTION 223 

raised unto damnation. Jesus in his reply to the 
Sadducees makes the distinction (Luke 20 : 34, 35). 
The children of this age marry, but they who shall 
be accounted worthy to attain that world and the 
resurrection from the dead shall not marry. A resur- 
rection of those worthy or of the just is referred to. 
In John 6 : 39, 40, 44, Christ lays emphasis upon the 
resurrection of just one class, namely, those who 
have become his own through redemption. The lost 
are not mentioned. They of course shall be raised, 
but evidently at a different time and in a different 
order. 

3. The preposition used in the original confirms 
this rendering. The resurrection of the just is 
always spoken of as the resurrection from (l* vaxpwv) 
the dead, and whenever the general resurrection is 
mentioned, it is the resurrection of (without £*) 
the dead. The first literally means out from among 
the dead, implying that all the dead were not raised 
at that time. Paul, when he spoke of the resur- 
rection, to which he strove to attain and to which 
he was pressing forward with all his might, as a 
high prize for which he counted all else loss, uses 
two prepositions as if one was not enough to indicate 
his meaning, its ryv k^avdara^tc; rijv £x vzzp&v, u attain to 
the resurrection from amo?tg the dead." If Paul had 
been looking forward to the general resurrection, he 
need not have given himself any concern or made any 
sacrifice to attain to that, for the hour shall come 
when the dead, small and great, shall stand before 
his throne. The great apostle had in mind the first 
resurrection, the resurrection of the just. That was 
the ^ prize before him, the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus. To be accounted worthy to be found 
among the just at that day is enough to inspire any 
soul to righteous living. The sentiment expressed in 
Lady Huntington's immortal verse should thrill the 
heart of every saint : 



224 TH ^ SOUTHERN BAPTIST PUJ.PIT 

When thou, my righteous Judge, shalt come 
To take thy ransomed people home, 

Shall I among them stand ? 
Shall such a worthless worm as I, 
Who sometimes am afraid to die, 

Be found at thy right hand ? 

Among the saints let me be found, 
Whene'er the archangel's trump shall sound, 

To see thy smiling face ; 
Then loudest of the throng I'll sing, 
While heaven's resounding mansions ring 

With shouts of sovereign grace. 

I close this part of the discussion with the words of 
Alford : " I cannot consent to distort words from their 
plain sense and chronological place in the prophecy 
on account of any consideration of difficulty, or any 
risk of abuses which the doctrine of the millennium 
may bring. . . If in a passage where two resurrec- 
tions are mentioned, where certain 4>uxai e^av (souls 
live) at the first, and the rest of the vexpol Kr^av (dead 
live) only at the end of a specified period after the 
first, if in such a passage the first resurrection may 
be understood to mean a spiritual rising with Christ, 
while the second means literal rising from the grave ; 
then there is an end of all significance in language, 
and the Scripture is wiped out as a definite testimony 
to anything. If the first resurrection is spiritual, then 
so is the second, which I suppose none will be hardy 
enough to maintain ; but if the second is literal, then 
so is the first, which in common with the whole prim- 
itive church and many of the best modern expositors, 
I do maintain, and receive as an article of faith and 
hope." 

II. " But some man will say, How are the dead 
raised up ? and with what body do they come ? " 

To the first question there is but one answer : By 
the power of God. This is the promise of the Al- 
mighty. Why should it seem to be a thing incredi- 



THE FIRST RESURRECTION 225 

ble that God should raise the dead ? Since God created 
man out of dust in his own image and breathed into 
him the breath of life and man became a living soul, 
cannot he also raise the body and give it back to the 
soul which has never died? It is interesting to run 
the analogy in nature, to see the similitudes all about 
us — in the flower springing up from the seed which 
has fallen into the earth and died ; in the springtime 
the calling earth from its winter's tomb. Blessed para- 
bles of a glorious resurrection. But our hope rests 
on firmer prophecy, even the sure promise of our 
blessed Lord : " But if the Spirit of him that raised 
up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised 
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mor- 
tal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you n (Rom. 
8 : n). "And God hath both raised up the L,ord, 
and will also raise up us by his own power n (i Cor. 

6:i 4 ). 

It will be an actual resurrection. What was buried 
shall rise again. What went into the tomb shall come 
out of the tomb. Personal identity shall be perfectly 
preserved in the resurrection process. The Bible as- 
serts the sameness of the resurrection body. The 
wisest physicist cannot tell just where the principle 
of the organic life of the body is. The Scriptures 
do not explain wherein the sameness of the resurrec- 
tion body consists, but they disclose the fact. Paul 
likens the resurrection to the sowing and sprouting 
of a grain of wheat. A grain of wheat always re- 
produces itself whenever it sprouts. There are imi- 
tations — the tare, but a tare is never wheat. We can- 
not tell just how a spear of golden grain will look 
next June, but we do know that it will be the same 
individual wheat plant. So we do know from the 
perfectness of the analogy, when we bury the body, 
that the same individual man shall rise on the resur- 
rection morning. Identity shall be absolutely pre- 
served. Dr. Owen said : ' 4 The translation of Enoch 



226 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

is divine testimony that the body itself is capable of 
eternal life." 

The Apostle Paul describes the resurrection of 
the body in these simple and beautiful words : 
" It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorrup- 
tion : it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory ; it 
is sown in weakness, it is raised in power ; it is 
sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." 
We shall be transformed and fashioned like u the 
body of his glory." We catch a glimpse of this 
glory in the transfiguration : " And as he prayed, the 
fashion of his countenance was altered, and his rai- 
ment was white and glistering." Dr. Gordon strik- 
ingly says : " The charcoal and the diamond are the 
same substance ; only the one is carbon in its hu- 
miliation and the other carbon in its glory. So is 
this tabernacle in which we dwell, in comparison 
with our house, which is from heaven. The one is 
mortal flesh shadowed by the curse and doomed to be 
sown in dishonor ; the other is that flesh made immor- 
tal and marvelously transformed." 

III. Blessedness of having part in the first resur- 
rection. 

" Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
resurrection ; on such the second death hath no power" 

i. There is a second death. " And death and hell 
were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second 
death " (Rev. 20 : 14). About this death are all the 
horrors of hell. This is the death we are warned to 
escape. " The wages of sin is death " — the second 
death. Awful, terrific thought ! Who would not 
escape it? Well may we shudder at the appearance 
of physical death. It is an enemy. It comes with 
the offer of a cold grave, dust, and ashes. Christ, 
however, robs it of its sting and shall raise us up 
unto a blessed immortality. But upon those who 
depart this life without hope, the second death has an 
eternal hold. Jesus said : " Marvel not at this, for 



THE FIRST RESURRECTION 227 

the hour is coming in the which all that are in the 
graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth ; 
they that have done good, unto the resurrection of 
life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrec- 
tion of damnation " (John 5 : 28, 29). To the just 
it is unto the resurrection life ; to the wicked it is the 
resurrection unto death. u Blessed and holy is he 
that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the 
second death hath no power" Behold the privilege 
and the pre-eminence and the glory of the believer's 
resurrection. Who would not strive to be accounted 
worthy to attain to this resurrection, for they shall 
be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with 
him a thousand vears. 

2. This is the resurrection in which alone there is 
hope to sweeten life. In this lies our hope of being 
forever with the L,ord ; for only those who rise first 
together with those who shall be changed shall meet 
him in the air at his second coming. Having trusted 
him, having felt the power of regeneration by the 
Holy Spirit, we are assured that in the glorious day 
of his second advent we shall hear his voice and 
come forth to life. Then we shall see our blessed 
Lord and be with him forever. Glorious hope ! 
Washington Irving was walking through Westminster 
Abbey, the city of the renowned dead. There gloom 
and silence and darkness and melancholy reigned. 
" Suddenly the notes of the deep-laboring organ 
burst upon the ear, falling with doubled and re- 
doubled intensity, and rolling, as it were, huge bil- 
lows of sound. How well do their volume and 
grandeur accord with this mighty building ! With 
what pomp do they swell through its vast vaults, and 
breathe their awful harmony through those caves of 
death, and make the silent sepulchre vocal ! And 
now they rise in triumphant acclamation, heaving 
higher and higher their accordant notes, and piling 
sound on sound. And now they pause, and the soft 



228 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

voices of the choir break out into sweet gushes of 
melody ; they soar aloft and warble along the roof, 
and seem to play about these lofty vaults like the 
pure air of heaven. Again the pealing organ heaves 
its thrilling thunders, compressing air into music, 
and rolling it forth upon the soul. What long-drawn 
cadences ! What solemn-sweeping concords ! It 
grows more and more dense and powerful — it fills the 
vast pile, and seems to jar the very walls — the ear is 
stunned, the senses are overwhelmed. And now it is 
winding up in full jubilee — it is rising from earth 
to heaven — the very soul seems rapt away, and 
floats upward on this swelling tide of harmony." 

Like that, only grander, shall be the scene and 
sweeter the joy of the first resurrection. The trumpet 
shall peal forth, the graves shall open. Christ shall 
softly and sweetly speak to his own and his sheep 
shall hear his voice and shall awake from their 
sleep. Then with all the music of the heavenlies 
they shall be rapt away with their Lord. The trans- 
figured Bride of Christ meets the Bridegroom. Hear 
the shout : " Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent 
reigneth. Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honor 
to him ; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, 
and his wife hath made herself ready." It is the 
hour of blissful fruition for the waiting Bride. She 
whose countenance was so often bedewed w T ith tears, 
whose feet were pierced with thorns, has now T the 
bridal veil upon her face and the nuptial joy in her 
heart. 

The hope of the first resurrection breaks the seal 
of death which parts us from our loved ones who have 
fallen asleep in Jesus Christ. 

During our memorial service held on the 26th of 
May, 1895, at Rose Hill Cemetery, Macon, Georgia, 
there was a most pathetic scene, which ought to be 
immortalized by some master artist. Little girls 
were strewing the graves of the heroic dead with 






THE FIRST RESURRECTION 2 29 

flowers. There stood near one of those graves a man 
at least fifty years of age. His eyes were riveted 
upon the tomb. He stood as if transfixed and totally 
unconscious of all the rest of the world. By-and-by 
he knelt by its side as if in prayer, while the great 
tears fell fast upon the green grass with which the 
grave was overgrown. Why did he weep? That 
grave held the dust and ashes of father or brother, or 
substitute. He remembered the days of yore, boy- 
hood's happy days. Dear son or brother, thy dead 
shall rise again. If he died in the Lord, if you are 
the Lord's, you shall meet nevermore to part. Blessed 
assurance, we shall meet our loved ones again. The 
grave shall give them back to us. Oh, yes, mother, 
I shall see you and walk the heavenly streets by your 
side. Yes ; go to the home where the little chair is 
empty, where the sweet prattling voice of the baby 
has been hushed in death, and tell the living, thy dead 
shall rise in the last day. Comfort the broken- 
hearted and wipe away the tears of sorrow with these 
words. Walk out into the silent cemetery where the 
gloom of death has settled, and drive away the dark- 
ness with the light of this glorious hope. 

Unsaved friends, let us talk very faithfully to each 
other just a minute. Dear boy, your mother lived 
and died in the triumphs of the Christian faith ; you 
are far away from her Christ. Unless you come to 
him you shall never see her again. Mother, look 
upon that sweet babe in your arms. It is a precious 
jewel in God's sight. You have never let Jesus come 
into your heart. Jesus will take your babe in his 
arms, while you will be cast into outer darkness. 
Faith in Christ is the link that binds us eternally. 
Death can never break it. Hell has no power over 
it. Death may part us for a little while, but only for 
a short season. u Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 
and thou shalt be saved." " Jesus said unto her 
[Martha], I am the resurrection and the life ; he 

u 



230 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall 
he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me 
shall never die. Believest thou this ?" God grant 
that this blessed truth may turn many to his dear 
Son and heal the homesickness of many in the 
thought of death. 



William Lowndes Pickard was born in Upson County, Ga., 
October 19, 1861. He took his degree at Mercer University, 
1884. Full graduate of seminary in 1887. Ordained at Macon, 
Ga., 1883. Pastor at Thomaston, Ga., March to October, 1884 ; 
at Elk Creek and Fisherville, Ky., while in seminary. Called to 
First Church, Eufaula, Ala., September 1, 1887. After two years 
there, called to First Church, Birmingham, Ala. After nearly 
four years there, called to Broadway Baptist Church, Louisville, 
Ky., his present pastorate. June, 1889, received degree of d d. 
from the University of Alabama. In 1886 he was married to 
Miss Florence May Willingham, of Albany, Ga., who is truly a 
pastor's helper. 




W. L. Pickard, D. D. 



XXI 

THE EFFECTUAL CROSS 1 

BY W. L. PICKARD, D. D. 

" For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel : not in 
wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made void." I Cor. 
1:17. 

MANY places that were once filled with ma- 
laria have been transformed into beauty ; but 
the transformation cost tremendous sacrifices. 

The greatest change in all history is that which 
has taken place in the estimate of the cross. What 
could Paul have meant when he spoke of the cross as 
something to be guarded with conscientious scruple 
lest it should become void ? Paul was once accused 
of being beside himself because of much learning ; is 
he beside himself when he speaks to the Corinthians 
of the effectual cross ? He speaks of preaching, and 
of preaching the gospel, and speaks of the cross as 
the central theme of this gospel. And he calls it the 
cross of Christ. He suggests that preaching must 
not be done in some ways lest the cross be made void. 
He implies the necessity of preaching so as to render 
this cross effectual. He speaks of the cross as some- 
thing that can be used for the greatest of good to the 
world, or as something that can be made ineffectual. 
Our theme is, therefore 

THE EFFECTUAL CROSS. 

Let us look more closely at the cross — the thing 

1 Preached in Washington, D. C, during the Jubilee Session of the 
Southern Baptist Convention. 

231 



333 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

Paul wished to guard with such jealous care. It was 
an instrument of torture and of death. There were 
several kinds of crosses. On these were executed 
thieves, outlaws, highwaymen, conspirators, mur- 
derers. Crucifixion was punishment in comparison 
with which the head-block, the French guillotine, 
the gallows, and electrocution are as downy pillows ; 
for death by ail these last is instantaneous, almost 
painless. In case of the upright cross, the victim 
had a wooden or iron nail driven through his chest 
into the post, and was left to the lingering suffering. 
In case of the simple cross — the kind on which 
our Lord was crucified — the hands of the victim were 
sometimes tied to the transverse piece and the weight 
of the body left to distend every nerve until endur- 
ance was at an end — a death of hours, sometimes 
days. Again, sometimes the hands were nailed and 
the feet left unnailed that the full weight of the body 
might be left on the pierced hands. Again, the 
hands and feet were nailed. In addition to these 
things, in the cases of some victims, the legs were 
broken ; in the case of our Lord his side was pierced. 
Death by the cross has been universally regarded as 
the most terrible suffering to which a human being 
could be subjected in the flesh. 

The shame of the cross was deep and lasting. The 
bodies of the crucified were often left on it to decay, 
or thrown in the u potter's field" to dogs and vul- 
tures. The families of such were under the social 
stigma practically outlawed. In the light of these 
historical facts much is meant when it is said of our 
Lord : He " endured the cross, despising the shame." 
The burial of our Lord's body was an exception to 
the rule of the crucified. Blessed Joseph ! Blessed 
Nicodemus ! Nicodemus, we forgive thy timidity at 
the beginning of Christ's ministry since thou wast a 
hero at his death. 

It was this instrument of torture that the apostle 



THE EFFECTUAL CROSS 2$$ 

desired to guard. Elsewhere he speaks of " glorying 
in the cross." By some means a great change has 
taken place. This transformation was due to one 
Jesus who had .been crucified. He who knew no sin 
had suffered there as if he had been the deepest 
stained of all the sinful. He was greater than all 
law. He had sufficient virtue in him to outweigh 
all sin. When he endured the cross he did that for 
humanity which would through all coming ages 
uplift it. Since Christ was crucified, the cross has 
become the symbol of the power of God, through 
Christ, for lifting men from under the law of sin and 
death. 

God's plan is perfect. Christ's blood is omnipo- 
tent. But God has elected to make his almighty 
plan efficient through means. The divinest ends of 
God are reached through means. And he has con- 
nected the gospel of Christ with our salvation from 
sin. And he has ordained the preaching of the gos- 
pel as one of the great means to the salvation of 
souls. Hence, all who are, in any sense, teachers of 
Christianity should be careful in their teaching, lest 
the cross of Christ should be made void. 

First. The cross which symbolizes the wisdom and 
power of God, and the atonement made by Christ, 
may be made ineffectual by rhetoric — wisdom of 
words. Paul affirmed that he did not go to the Corin- 
thians to preach "in wisdom of words." He said 
that such preaching would make the cross void. 

God and Christ know the power of words. Words 
embody thought, and thought represents the heart. 
Hence by our words we are to be condemned or jus- 
tified. The gospel of Christ has been written, by the 
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, in words. But words 
are to be used to reveal the cross and not to hide it. 
The Corinthians thought themselves very literary. 
They had been inclined to discount the teachings of 
Paul because he had not used fine rhetoric like some 



234 TH 3 SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

of the Grecian orators. They were thinking about how 
he said things, rather than about the things said. They 
desired to hear words that sounded wise, measured by 
a profane standard. Paul avoided any such display. 
He was afraid to present a rhetorical bouquet lest the 
people would look at the flowers and not at the cross. 
We have all heard discourses that were complete in 
analysis, dressed in silvery words, yes, finished to 
death. When they were ended, we felt no nearer 
to God, had not been stirred to deeper convictions of 
duty ; they were flowers to be admired. A mirror is 
not to show itself, but to show other objects. Words 
are not to cover the cross, but to exhibit it. What 
the Corinthians needed was the water of life rather 
than golden dippers. Paul meant to use words that 
were like fish-hooks, words that would stick in the 
hearts of men and make lasting impressions. The 
Book says the time will come when people will 
have itching ears — they will wish the beautiful rather 
than the useful. Who doubts that Paul, under the 
guidance of the Holy Spirit, could have written a 
whole treatise on rhetoric and have used phrases 
that would have made the fastidious in Corinth ap- 
plaud him. But he was showing the cross, and it 
needs no drapery. 

2. The cross may be made void by efforts to dis- 
play worldly wisdom. 

Science has brought many blessings to man. It is 
usually defined as u that which is known ; that which 
has been demonstrated to be fact." The definition 
ought to be enlarged a little. It ought to be, that 
which is demonstrated to be fact, and shall al- 
ways stand demonstrated to be fact. This, because 
some men who were not eminently scientific and who 
were not eminent biblical scholars have often an- 
nounced irreconcilable differences between science 
and the Bible; but investigation through twenty-five 
years more has shown that the supposed conflict was 



THE EFFECTUAL CROSS 235 

not a conflict between science and the Bible. In the 
world we observe law — law must have a law-maker ; 
we see force — force must have an author and director ; 
we see order — order must have an orderer ; we see de- 
sign — design must have a designer. The Bible was 
not intended to be a scientific book, except to give 
God's science of the salvation of men. It deals with 
the human race as lost in sin, and with Christ as man's 
Saviour from sin. Science tells that God is, that he 
exists ; but it takes the Bible to tell what God is, and 
what our relations to him are and may be. The rocks 
tell us that God exists ; but this knowledge leaves a 
veil between us and God. Revelation and the Christ 
of revelation rend the veil and show us God as the 
Father. 

There is another way in which the cross may be ren- 
dered void by science, even in the hands of those who 
love it. Our context says : " For after that in the 
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, 
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching (by the 
preaching of a gospel that the worldly philosophy 
would call foolishness) to save them that believe." 
Worldly wisdom does not show the cross to dying 
souls. I do not doubt that Christ could have written 
a scientific book. In one discourse he could have 
told all the future triumphs of science. On the day 
when he stood on Olivet and wept over Jerusalem, he 
saw all that we know to-day, for he is u the same yes- 
terday, to-day, and forever," but he did not write sci- 
ence, for if he had done that he would have been 
neglecting his " Father's business," and the needs of 
humanity. If the wisdom of the world could have 
saved souls from sin, there would have been no need 
of the cross. God neither wastes force nor time. 
Christ was not crucified for pastime. 

The cross needs no defense, no apology. It is 
God's criticism of sin, and his apology of love. The 
cross was God's great battle-ground, through Christ, 



336 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

with sin. On it was sin's Conqueror. Behind it now 
stands the One who exclaimed: "All authority in 
heaven and earth is given to me." Can man by 
searching (unaided by revelation) find out God to per- 
fection? The answer of the ages is, No. But the 
cross reveals God in his perfection, in his perfection 
as hating sin ; in his perfect justice ; in his perfect 
love. God, by the cross, has brought human wis- 
dom to naught, that no flesh should glory in his pres- 
ence. 

3. The cross may be rendered void by forms and 
ceremonies. Paul said to the Corinthians : "I came 
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel." He did 
not belittle baptism. But he was hedging against 
the religion of mere form. He was emphasizing that 
which was first, viz., the gospel applied to the heart 
and conscience. The Jews desired signs and sea- 
sons. And signs and seasons go together as a rule. 
Set days, feasts, and fasts require forms, signs, and 
rituals. It is the tendency of human nature to exalt 
the sign above the thing signified. Many who have 
adopted the literal cross as an emblem of the suffer- 
ing Christ, are ignorant of the Christ. Many who 
have adopted days of feasts and fasts, neglect Christ 
the balance of the time. Many through the centuries 
have seemed to think that they came especially to 
baptize, hence baptismal regeneration. God is a 
spirit and will have of his spiritual beings spiritual 
worship When we begin to have seasons and signs 
the seen is substituted for the unseen, the visible for 
the invisible, and the bleeding Christ is veiled, the 
cross is rendered ineffectual. This tendency is dan- 
gerous. The eye must be more and more satisfied. 
The spiritual is subordinated, hence candles, crosses, 
saints' pictures, popes, priests, human dignitaries, 
human systems, signs, only signs. When Christ said 
on the cross, " It is finished," he meant the measure 
of his words. He meant that the atonement was 



THK EFFECTUAL CROSS 237 

complete, and that nothing could add to the cross. 
When we try to add to the cross, we do cover it and 
belittle its power and grandeur. 

4. The cross may be rendered ineffectual by a con- 
ception of it that is lower than God's. 

Some use great " wisdom of words" in painting 
the cross as the exhibition of a beautiful moral senti- 
ment. They paint Christ as the highest type of 
human devotion and unselfishness. This is only a 
half truth which vitiates the whole. It is one of 
those half truths which becomes more hurtful than a 
whole falsehood, for it deceives the worshiper and 
covers up the Christ who is to be worshiped. 

Christ, as he walked among men and worked for 
humanity is an example for us ; but Christ on the 
cross was not an example. An example is something 
to follow. Christ's death was not an example. It 
was not to be followed. It cannot be. It was an 
atonement. And none but Christ could make an 
atonement. Search earth, search heaven, search hell, 
none but Christ could meet Calvary and give the 
blood that had cleansing power in it. 

Not all the blood of beasts 

On Jewish altars slain, 
Could give the guilty conscience peace, 

Or wash away the stain. 

But Christ, the heavenly Lamb, 

Takes all our sins away, — 
A sacrifice of nobler name, 

And richer blood than they. 

Second. How the cross may be made effectual. 

1. By realizing what God means by the cross. 
God means one great fact to be burned into our 
minds and hearts by the cross. His own great 
thought of the cross is that the crucified Christ is the 
sinner's atonement. Atonement means "at-one- 



2^8 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 



o 



ment. n But mere definition in this case is inade- 
quate to convey the meaning. When an atonement 
is needed there is enmity. Then there was enmity 
between the human race and God ; and, as far as man 
was concerned, the difference between God and man 
was superlative in degree and everlasting in duration. 

Let us look at God and man in their original rela- 
tions. God creates man in his own image. God and 
man are happy together. They delight in each 
other's company. They walk and talk together in 
sweetest companionship. They are both holy. The 
continuance of this companionship is necessarily con- 
ditioned on man's holiness. The moment man 
becomes unholy, God and man become each repel- 
lent to the other. They can no more be companions 
than light and darkness can exist together. Man 
could sin. Man did sin. And sin made man a differ- 
ent being as to his whole nature. Sin separated man 
from God as widely as man is separated from the ser- 
pent. By sin, man's nature, his mind, his affections, 
his will, his blood, his body, all became changed. 
Man became subject to sin. Men's thoughts were 
sinful, he willed sinful things, his body executed sin- 
ful deeds, and with sin came death to spiritual life 
and fellowship which, before sinning, he had with 
God. With sin came bodily ills, aches, tears, and 
death. When all of this occurred there was complete 
separation between God and man. God delighted in 
the world of holiness and moral beauty ; man in the 
world of untruthfulness, immorality, and deformity. 

A great gulf was fixed between the two worlds, 
and no human bridge could span it. It was not a 
gulf arbitrarily fixed by the wish of God, but one 
that sin had fixed, a gulf that must necessarily exist 
between the sinner and the sinless God. 

Sin made man an enemy to God. But man could 
not change his nature back into holiness. Some 
higher power must change man from a sinful being 



THE EFFECTUAL CROSS 239 

to a holy being. Could Adam and Eve have lived a 
million years in the flesh, and made a billion efforts 
to change their nature, all would have been in vain. 
They could no more have changed their nature than 
could the lily become an oak, or the serpent a lordly 
eagle. And what is emphatically true, they did not 
change. And what is emphatically true again, their 
race, of itself, has not changed. Sin brought ruin 
and death to Adam and Eve, and the trail of the ser- 
pent has been over all till now. Could they have 
lived upright beings after sinning, still they stood as 
traitors, and their traitorous nature would have been 
transmitted to their children. For when their first 
child was born after they had sinned, he was in 
Adam's image and not in God's. So far as the 
human race was concerned, then and now, it could 
not, and cannot atone for sin. Unless God comes to 
the rescue, it was helpless, doomed, and of itself it 
is still helpless, doomed. Can you make an atone- 
ment ? Can I ? Guilty, helpless, doomed ! 

Furthermore. As a mere act of making sinful 
man holy, as a matter of forgiving sin, simply 
speaking man's sins forgiven, God himself could not 
do this. The guilt was still fixed. 

God's nature is holy. The thought of a compro- 
mise between sin and God is an intellectual impossi- 
bility. You can't conceive of such a thing without 
dethroning God. God never forgave a sin. Nor will 
he ever forgive a sin. To forgive a sin would be to 
wink at it, to excuse it, to compromise with it. But 
God has arranged a righteous plan by which he can 
justify one who has sinned, and all who have sinned, 
but it is only by blotting the sins out in blood. The 
existence of hell is that there may be a place to itself 
where unforgiven sin may hold its willing subjects 
forever separated from those whose sins have been 
blotted out. God's justice and nature require that no 
sinful being can become his companion, that the 



240 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

being's sin must be blotted out, and the man must 
become a new creature in Christ Jesus. 

It was not a piece of momentary arbitration that 
connected the cross with man's salvation from sin. 
The mind of God comprehends the universe on this 
question. If blazing stars and burning suns could 
have bridged this chasm, the canopied vaults and 
sunlit domes of countless worlds would have been 
consecrated to the work. If fallen angels could have 
been used for this work, they would have been conse- 
crated to it. If sinless angels could have done this 
work, they filling the courts of heaven would have 
been consecrated to it. If God the Father, in his 
plans, could have done this without the cross, there 
would have been no Calvary. In the plans of the 
triune God, none but Christ could do this mightiest 
work of works. And he could not accomplish it 
while on the throne with the Father. Nor yet could 
he do this as a sinless being in Bethlehem, Nazareth, 
and Gethsemane. To grasp the scope of his work 
and to exclaim : "It is finished," he must, as the 
Lamb of God, appointed from before the foundation 
of the world, be lifted up. To Calvary he must go. 

This was not, and is not primarily, a matter of 
love. God loves us with matchless passion, and so 
loved us as to send his Son to us, but he would not 
have sent his Son if it had not been necessary. It 
was a question, and is a question, of justice in paying 
the sinner's debts. The sinner was in debt to God 
and righteousness, and had naught with which to pay. 
If Christ pays not this debt, we must be forever ban- 
ished from the presence of God. He who pays the 
debt must be able to satisfy justice, all its righteous 
demands. Some one whose holy nature was infinite 
must suffer under this broken law as man's substitute, 
and for man, and in man's stead suffer the penalty 
of the law. Hence Christ took on him the seed of 
Abraham. He who knew no sin was made sin for 



THE EFFECTUAL CROSS 241 

us. When this was done justice was met. God had 
the fountain of blood with which to wash away 
sin. He could be approached by man, and man 
could lovingly come to him and pillow his head on 
the divine bosom. When we place the cross in this 
position, we place it where Paul placed it, as the way, 
the only way, the all-sufficient way, of a sinner's sal- 
vation. 

This exhibits the cross as God's criticism on sin. 
There never was a little sin. The smallest sin will 
damn the greatest soul, unless that sin shall be 
blotted out. If from the fall of man until this hour 
God had never come to man's rescue, leaving sin to 
run its awful course, what would be the condition of 
the world ? If God had not raised up an Enoch, a 
Noah, an Abraham, an Isaac ; if he had not raised 
up Moses and given him the law ; if there had been 
no judges, no prophets, and no Christ, no words nor 
works of divine intervention for man, how would 
human history now read ? We shudder at the thought. 
Honesty, uprightness, honor, purity, law, marriage, 
civilization, virtue, have all been projected into the 
race by the mercy of God. If sin has so blackened 
the world and ruined so many souls, despite the work 
of God and Christ, what would have been the picture 
if God had forever withdrawn from the human race? 
By the cross God says sin is the most terrible enemy 
to God and man that there is in the universe. Hence, 
the flowing blood is the philippic of God's wrath 
against all sin. What shall we say then ? " Shall 
we continue in sin that grace may abound ? " Let 
us exclaim with Paul : " God forbid." 

2. The cross may be effectual, not only by present- 
ing it as the atonement for sin and God's criticism 
on sin, but as God's consuming passion for the salva- 
tion of the lost. The atonement shows God's love of 
justice, shows justice; the spirit of the atonement ex- 
hibited the love of God and Christ for man. " For 

v 



242 the: southern baptist pulpit 

God so loved the world that he gave his only begot- 
ten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish, but have everlasting life. " Again, " Christ 
loved us and gave himself for us." The spirit of 
atonement was one of such matchless love that it 
willingly gave the only begotten Son of God to be 
man's substitute. God and Christ did this of their 
own loving accord. 

Let us try to measure this love by what Christ en- 
dured for us. The Jewish Sanhedrin, in a mock 
trial, condemned him to the cross on the false charge 
of blasphemy. The popular cry of the Jews was that 
Christ was an enemy to Caesar. This was false. 
The scarlet robe that was in mockery placed on Jesus 
and the crowning of him with thorns was not a part 
of the law of crucifixion. The buffeting and other 
insults to which he was subjected was not a part of 
the law of crucifixion. He could have thwarted all 
of this, but he endured. He was willing to bear all 
that sin could place on him, that he might conquer 
sin, all because he loved us. 

The legal steps in punishment by crucifixion were : 
Stripping the victim, scourging him with a scourge 
into which nails and pieces of steel were often put ; 
hence, the victim suffered agony even before reaching 
the cross. The victim had to bear his own cross to 
the place of execution. It is likely that Christ's 
scourging rendered him unable to bear the cross to 
the place of crucifixion, hence, Simon the Cyrenian 
helped him to bear it. The victim was tied or nailed 
to the cross. Our Lord was nailed to it. To the 
one being crucified was usually given a medicated 
drink to drown the senses. Jesus refused this that 
his senses might be clear to the end. He was " drink- 
ing sorrow's cup." He was insulted by being offered 
vinegar and hyssop. All of this he endured without 
one murmur. This all exhibited God's love for us. 
See now the suffering. The distended position of 



THK EFFECTUAL CROSS 243 

the body on the cross put the nerves to their greatest 
tension, causing indescribable pain. The hands and 
feet are especially nerve-centers, and the nails through 
these caused excruciating pain. Because of the dis- 
tended position of the body, more blood flowed 
through the arteries than could flow back through 
the veins, hence an overflow of blood to the head, 
causing suffering beyond the power of language to 
describe. All of this caused burning thirst. Added 
to all this, in our Lord's case, there was a moment 
when the Father forsook him. All this Christ en- 
dured. What a criticism on sin ! what a commentary 
on love ! Did he ask the Father why he had forsaken 
him? It was justice driving the last nail. This 
must be before life, death, and hell could realize the 
meaning of the expression: "It is finished." Do 
you wonder that the sun veiled his face from twelve 
to three o'clock? He was being crucified who made 
the sun and kept it rolling in its orbit. No wonder 
it drew aside to mourn. Do you wonder that the 
veil of the temple was rent ? The last great sacrifice 
in the plan of redemption was being offered. The 
veil of the "Holy of Holies" would no more be 
needed. No wonder the rocks were rent, for the rock 
of ages was being cleft, and from it was flowing a 
stream for the washing of the nations. No wonder 
the graves gave up their dead, for he was dying who 
was to conquer death. No wonder the earth quaked, 
for the time is coming when he who was enduring 
then shall speak, and the quaking earth and seas and 
hell shall give up their dead and to his presence they 
shall come ! Consuming passion, did I say ? Yes, con- 
suming love for the lost ! Oh, passion of God's pas- 
sions, the love that Christ exhibited on Calvary ! 
The cross, the cross, let it ever stand clearly before a 
needy world as the symbol of God's power to save. 

3. The cross may be made effectual by our crown- 
ing it with glory. 



244 TH] £ SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

Paul gloried in the cross, preached it, and suffered 
for it. The blood-stained cross stands in the center 
of human history and human progress. To it, all 
history converges. From it, all real progress pro- 
ceeds. It has freed the hearts of men from sin. It 
has broken the shackles of the consciences of men ; 
it has introduced to the world the true conception of 
the dignity of man ; it has changed those who were 
in prison cells of sin so that they dwell in palaces of 
joy and hope. It has given men that truth that has 
made them free indeed. It has changed tyrants and 
autocrats into men of fraternal spirits. It has 
changed savage nations into the highest types of 
Christian civilization. It has exalted the sense of 
honor, justice, and righteousness in the minds and 
hearts of men everywhere. It stands behind earth's 
greatest discoveries. It is the key given of God to 
man to unlock the vaults of the great hidden treas- 
ures in all spheres. It is exalting love and reason 
above hatred and the sword. It is making the world 
a brotherhood. It is blessing and protecting even the 
infidel and scoffer. It is making glorious conquests 
everywhere. It has multiplied the Twelve who loved 
one another into countless millions who love 
each other. It has changed the love-chamber in 
the upper room in Jerusalem, to a palace as wide 
as the world, frescoed with love as pure as the 
crimson blood that flowed on Calvary. It has made 
labor sweeter. It has not taken all the thorns from 
the earth, but it has made the flowers more numerous 
and more fragrant. It touches the whole creation 
and the whole creation does not u groan and travail " 
in such pain as it did before the cross and the Christ 
met. The world is crowning the cross with glory. 
All science, all progress, all knowledge, all govern- 
ments, are placing flowers at its base and glory on 
its head, and Christians in larger numbers and in 
sweeter anthems are singing its glory day by day. 



THE EFFECTUAL CROSS 245 

But this is not all. Paul viewed the cross in 
greater glory and splendor than we have yet men- 
tioned. All truth that touches moral beings centers 
in Christ. That for which he died on Calvary must 
be acknowledged supreme in the universe. The day 
of reckoning is coming, and when that day comes, 
the great day of Calvary's triumph will have come. 
The angels who never sinned will then see the cross 
as Christ saw it. All of the redeemed will under- 
stand the necessity of the cross as never before. And 
all of the damned will acknowledge then the love 
and justice of Jehovah, and their wrath will give 
him praise. The intelligent universe will have but 
one opinion of the cross and the Lamb. The king- 
doms of the universe will then be redeemed back to 
God and the universe shall sing : 

All hail the power of Jesus' name. 

Brethren, every being in the universe shall confess 
that Christ's blood was not shed in vain. But oh !• 
what is your relation and mine to the cross ? Have we 
been washed in the blood ? Is the bleeding sacrifice 
our personal Saviour ? Is he reigning in our hearts ? 
Is the sweet song of redemption our song? Will the 
final hallelujah for the cross be our blissful shout? 
Shall we be with him in his final triumph ? When 
spiritual death is cast into hell, and when all tears 
are wiped from the eyes of the redeemed, shall you 
and I be among the tearless ones ? God grant it. 

Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood 

Shall never lose its power, 
Till all the ransomed church of God 

Be saved to sin no more. 



XXII 



A KINGDOM BUILT ON A CROSS 1 



BY REV. E. Y. MULLENS 

" Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone ; 
but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.'' John 12 : 24. 

JESUS came into the world to set up a kingdom. In 
the synoptic Gospels the subject-matter of all his 
preaching is the kingdom of God. He announces 
its approach. He describes the character of its sub- 
jects. He predicts its progress and enlargement. 
He does not omit to declare its final consummation. 
But in the earlier stages of his ministry there is a 
strange reserve in his statements about the extent of 
his kingdom. " I am not sent save to the lost sheep 
of the house of Israel." Yet ever and anon, there 
comes up from the great deep of his mind and heart, 
like an upspringing from the depths of the sea, a 
phrase or sentence or brief parable which tells of a 
kingdom whose spreading branches shall shelter the 
storm-tossed sons of men from the face of the whole 
earth, or which shows us that as he gazed out into 
the distant future he beheld vast streams of humanity 
pouring into his kingdom from the north, and south, 
and east, and west, and sitting down with Abraham 
and Isaac and Jacob at its festal board. The heart 
of Jesus was never out of touch with the great suffer- 
ing heart of the world. And now as he stands face 
to face with the cross, oppressed and straitened in 
spirit, how it must have thrilled and satisfied him to 

1 Preached in Twelfth Street Methodist Church, Washington, D. C, 
during the Jubilee Session of the Southern Baptist Convention. 
246 




Rev. E. Y. Mulltns. 



E. Y. Mullins, son of Eld. S. G. Mullins and Mrs. C. B. 
Mullins, was born in Copiah Co., Miss., January 5, i860. His 
paternal grandfather was a minister. Mr. Mullins was converted 
in Dallas, Tex., at a great revival held by Maj. W. E. Penn in 
October, 1880. Was educated at the A. and M. College, of 
Texas, and after conversion took the full course at the Southern 
Baptist Theological Seminary. He was pastor in Harrodsburg, 
Ky., 1885 to 1888, and of Lee Street Church, Baltimore, from 
1888 to 1895. He has, at this writing, just been elected asso- 
ciate corresponding secretary of the Foreign Mission Board of 
the Southern Baptist Convention. Both he and his wife have 
for several years exerted a wide influence for the cause of mis- 
sions. 



A KINGDOM BUII/T ON A CROSS 247 

hear the announcement that Gentiles desired to see 
him, The coming of the Greeks at the time was a 
providential coming, and the mission was the same 
as that of the angel in the garden which came to 
strengthen him. It was as if the Father pressed a 
draught of strengthening cordial to his lips before 
the trial ; as if the first-fruits of the cross were be- 
stowed to prepare him for its agony.- The text con- 
stitutes the deepest answer to the inquiring Greeks. 
Observe that it amounts to a confession on the part 
of Jesus that his holy and spotless life, taken as a 
means of drawing men and consolidating a kingdom, 
was a failure. The grain of wheat abideth alone 
except it die. His approach to the Jewish nation had 
turned out a failure ; they were about to crucify him. 
His attempt to attach a little circle of fishermen to 
him had turned out a failure ; they were about to 
flee like frightened sheep at the bark of a wolf. Per- 
haps the bond that bound them to him may be digni- 
fied by the name of love ; but it was a feeble thing 
compared with the love which followed the cross. It 
then became martyr-love, and compared with it the 
former love was as u moonlight unto sunlight and as 
water unto wine." So the coming of much fruit could 
not antedate the cross. There was in this no disap- 
pointment, and nothing unexpected to Jesus. The 
cross was his goal when he forsook his throne for this 
earth. He knew the loneliness of his high and holy 
purpose, a loneliness which bereft him of human sym- 
pathy and companionship and love which his heart 
craved. Now in his death the loneliness is to be 
intensified. Are not the words of the poetess true? — 

Yea, once Immanuel's orphaned cry this universe hath shaken : 
It went up single, echoless, My God, I am forsaken. 

But blessed be God 

It went up from the Holy's lips amid his lost creation, 

That of the lost no son should use those words of desolation. 



248 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

I. The saving significance of the cross. Standing 
in a grain field you observe the tender shoot appear 
above the soil. Below the visible manifestation there 
is at work a mystic and wonderful power, a power 
capable of projecting straight into the air by slow 
degrees a graceful and majestic stalk ; a power capa- 
ble of crowning the top of the stalk with a rich fruit- 
age of grain, and that grain so sweet and nutritious 
as to be the bread of the human race, the universal 
food. And what is the cost of the head of wheat ? 
Death in the dark earth below. So Jesus came to 
project a kingdom above the surface of the sin-cursed 
and sorrow-stricken and God-hungry world, that 
should shelter it, and feed it, and satisfy it, and redeem 
it. The cost of that was death. The surging tides 
of life were in him, but they could be released only as 
he gave himself up in voluntary self-surrender. But 
in pointing to the process of increase required by the 
wheat grain, Jesus does not assert that it is identical 
in all respects with the process of increase required 
in his life. It is not the continuation of a law of nature 
upward into the realm of grace that is here pointed 
out. The tiny grain of wheat must fall into the earth 
and be dissolved by death before it will relax its grasp 
of the life potencies which slumber in its bosom ; 
and so the life of Jesus must be dissolved ere the 
waving grain fields of the spiritual harvest can glad- 
den the eyes of the angels and of God. Yet in the 
one case death is a physical necessity and in the 
other a moral and spiritual one. The necessity was 
this : As Jesus looked down from heaven upon earth he 
beheld a doomed race, doomed because of transgres- 
sion and because the righteous Father had enacted 
pain and suffering and death as the penalty of trans- 
gression. And so, unlike the unconscious and pas- 
sive grain of wheat which falls into the earth and 
dies, Jesus chose to be born and chose to die, inviting 
the full force and penalty into his own bosom ; and 



A KINGDOM BUILT ON A CROSS 249 

bowing his head beneath the black flood of death, he 
abode there until it spent its force, and then choosing 
to rise from the dead, he came forth the L,ord of life. 
And shall the world stumble at this law of sacrifice 
so sublimely exemplified in the offering of the Son 
of God ? If the law of substitution be recognized 
elsewhere should it be repudiated here ? If the world 
applaud the nobility of the mother who quenches the 
flame of her own life at the bedside of her sick child ; 
if the world enshrine the story of Damon and Pythias 
in its memory as the glorification of human friend- 
ship ; if it be confessed that one generation suffers 
that the next may profit by its experience ; if the 
mighty forest grows up out of the soil enriched by 
the forest of a former age ; if one order of the lower 
animals is in the plan of nature made as food for an- 
other ; if all human progress be the result of sacri- 
fice ; if our free institutions were bought with the 
blood of the fathers of the Revolution ; if the peace 
of fellowship which cements the two sections of our 
land to-day be recognized as the purchase of the men 
who sleep in one thousand cemeteries North and 
South — I ask if the law of sacrifice be so universally 
admitted, shall it be that Calvary is the only spot in 
all God's universe where it shall be excluded ? God 
forbid. 

But the saving significance of the cross relates in 
part to the effect on Satan. Christ came to cast out 
the prince of this world. Marvelous is the method 
employed to accomplish it. He does it not with 
thunderbolts of wrath, not with fiery chariots and an 
army of angelic cohorts. He conquers Satan by sur- 
rendering to his power. " Come," says Jesus to the 
arch enemy, " bind these hands and these feet with 
your strongest chain, transfix me with your most 
deadly arrow, death ; close these eyes, blanch these 
lips, still this throbbing heart, entomb me in rock 
and seal it and guard it well. " And the sepulchre 



250 the; southern baptist pulpit 

smacks its satisfied lips over the cold clay of the dead 
Christ Laugh demons ! Exult Satan ! Weep an- 
gels ! Gather in little groups, ye broken-hearted dis- 
ciples, and pour out your grief to one another. But 
hark ! That was the rumbling of an earthquake. 
Look ! That flash of light before the dawn is an an- 
gel dropping through space to the door of the tomb, 
and behold, within the sepulchre the blush of life 
mantles the face of the sleeper ; he sits up and calmly 
disrobes himself of the grave-clothes and steps forth 
the victor over death forevermore. Satan has no 
other weapon of attack. He has done his worst and 
failed. He is conquered. The pent-up tides of life 
which have been surging in the bosom of Jesus have 
at last broken through their bounds, and the wilder- 
ness and the solitary place can rejoice and the desert 
can blossom as the rose, and all the choirs of creation 
can catch up the song of redemption and pour forth 
their floods of praise to God who loveth and redeem- 
eth the world. The wrath of God was now spent, 
and henceforth there is a way of escape for man. 
And like the lonely traveler on the Western prairie, 
who, when he descries in the distance the lurid black 
line of a great prairie fire rapidly approaching him, 
takes a match and burns away a spot and in this 
spot takes his stand until the raging sea of fire has 
swept past him, leaving him standing unscathed in 
the spot where the devouring element has already 
accomplished its work — so poor lost humanity can 
take its stand in the one spot where the wrath of God 
has spent its force, at the cross of Chris% and gaze 
with unblanched face upon the fiery waves of judg- 
ment that shall roll over the earth at the appointed 
hour. 

II. The law of the cross the law of discipleship. 
What was the change which Jesus proposed to 
himself in turning ordinary men into disciples? 
The requirements of a genuine disciple are tremen- 



A KINGDOM BUII/F ON A CROSS 25I 

dous. The general characteristics of the disciple 
are clearly revealed throughout the New Testament 
He must be one who lives in two worlds at the same 
time. While his life is spent on earth his affections 
must be in heaven. In the midst of the seen he 
must keep a firm grip upon the unseen. With ten 
thousand enemies within and ten thousand other 
enemies around him, he must walk a victor through 
the world. In the midst of hate and persecution he 
must love. The body of disciples must become an 
organization or a kingdom diverse from all other 
kingdoms and yet must flourish side by side with 
them all ; it must have such coherency and endurance 
that its dissolution shall be beyond the reach of any 
earthly power of any age ; with a wide gulf of sepa- 
ration rolling between its members and other men, 
they must yet be able and willing to reach across the 
gulf and save their haters and persecutors. How 
shall such a disciple be produced, such a kingdom be 
built up? Certainly not by the unaided power of 
moral truth. Philosophers had announced truth 
enough to establish even a kingdom of love before 
Jesus. Each had succeeded in gathering around him 
a little handful of adherents. But whenever the 
leader died the movement died. Not so with Jesus ; 
when he died his movement began. And it was in 
this Jesus differed from all other teachers. He ap- 
plied the law of the cross to the heart of the dis- 
ciple. Regeneration, increase, life,- power through 
death. Discipleship means crucifixion. Consecration 
means a cross, a sepulchre, a resurrection. " He that 
loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life 
in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." It is re- 
lated that when the Roman Colosseum was being dis- 
mantled by the inhabitants of the city no way could 
be found to check the work of destruction until one 
of the popes, fearing lest the splendid structure should 
be utterly demolished, hit upon the expedient of 



252 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

erecting a cross in the center of the massive pile, 
thus rendering it a sacred edifice. The effect was 
magical in arresting the ruthless hand of destruc- 
tion. So the cross in the center of man's being alone 
can save him. To attempt to build up Christian 
character by preaching that leaves out the cross as 
the basis of it is to adopt the very process that Christ 
pronounced a failure, the process he came to displace. 
Thus by applying the law of the cross to his disciples 
Jesus produced the most beautiful, most noble, most 
magnificent type of character this world ever beheld. 
Socrates, the noble old Greek philosopher, chose 
death rather than to surrender truth. But he died 
for something of his own, a system of teaching which 
was the offspring of his own brain. The Christian 
on the other hand, is crucified unto another, is a mar- 
tyr, if necessary, for the sake of another. . He is cru- 
cified unto Christ when he makes over himself, the 
priceless core and center of his being, unto Christ, 
and for Christ's sake he makes himself over to a per- 
ishing race. This new bond established by the law 
of the cross easily snaps all others, easily takes the 
supreme place. It breaks the love of money for its 
own sake and brings all and lays it at the feet of Je- 
sus ; it is stronger than brother-love, or sister-love, 
or father-love or mother-love, yea than all of them 
combined. It is mightier than the love of home and 
of country, and even of life itself, and than the fear 
of death. To prove these statements I have but to 
remind you that it produced a Paul, a Luther, a 
Carey, a Judson, and ten thousand others whose 
names glow on the pages of sacred history and who 
themselves blaze like seraphs around the throne to- 
night. 

III. The lazv of the cross the condition of the 
worlds evangelisation. The weakness of modern 
Christianity is its defective views as to the cost of 
spiritual power. To effect spiritual results in the 



A KINGDOM BUII/T ON A CROSS 253 

hearts of men and women, spiritual agencies alone 
can avail. The cress is the measure of the cost of 
life for the world. The law of the cross in the lives 
of the followers of the Crucified is the only means of 
making that cross effective. Crucifixion is the cost 
of all spiritual power; consecration is only another 
name for death. Any cheaper process of attaining 
the result is doomed to failure. Every genuine 
spiritual result in heathen lands or our own land is 
the only and true measure of the forthputting of 
spiritual energy before. Given an exact measure of 
the spiritual power in the life of any man, and it 
requires no inspiration to predict the exact result. 
A great deal is said about the obstacles to the spread 
of the gospel. The founder of Christianity counted 
and measured all the obstacles before he came to sup- 
ply a means of surmounting them. The gospel pre- 
supposes obstacles, and where this deepest law of 
spiritual power finds play in the people of Christ 
there are no obstacles. Impediments to the gospel 
are such only when Christ's people attempt to match 
them with the wrong thing. L,et the law of the 
cross be wanting and there will always be obstacles. 
Straws mark the direction of the current. Some one 
appealed through the paper the other day to the 
wealthiest Christian man to give all his money and 
that would convert the world. Much as the cause 
needs money, much as we should strive to increase 
our gifts all along the line, it is my deliberate con- 
viction from my text, that if all the millionaires in 
America should put their aggregate wealth at the dis- 
position of our Boards, the world would not neces- 
sarily be any nearer conversion than it is. If indeed 
such an outpouring of wealth were the index of a 
growth in spiritual power, then there would be hope. 
Brethren, if God is in human history at all, the 
center of his providence is the cross. If God spares 
the sin-stained and atheistic world, it is solely that 

w 



254 TH 3 SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

the cross may make its way over it. If God permits 
you to live and to accumulate wealth, it is that you 
and it may be assimilated with the Christ of Calvary 
in the world's evangelization. It were better never 
to have been born than to abuse this obligation and 
this supreme privilege. If the great material 
advances of the world and the discoveries which have 
marked the past century have any significance at all, 
they relate to the work of the cross on earth. Yes, 
I believe it is the " crisis of missions." Because God 
has shut his people up to circumstances which leave 
them only one plea in case of failure. In times past 
Christians could explain the failure to send the gos- 
pel over the earth on the ground of persecution, or of 
poverty, or of want of an educated ministry, or the 
hostility of the nations to missionaries, or of their 
own obscurity and feebleness as a people, or lack of 
means of transportation. But to-day there is only 
one explanation available, viz. : " We do not want to 
give the world the gospel ; we do not love the Christ 
enough to care whether the world is saved or lost." 
The world looks on as the churches confront their 
task, devils look on, angels look on, God looks on, 
Christ looks on. The question of missions is to-day 
the test question of Christianity. The world is going 
to view Christianity as a success or a failure accord- 
ing as the churches solve the problem of missions. 
Infidelity, in whatever form it makes the attack, can- 
not damage the Bible or the cause of religion as it 
will be damaged by failure in the mission work. 
Heresy here is the most fatal of all heresies. God 
make us true and loyal in this supreme test of our 
age. 



D. I. Purser was born in Copiah County, Miss. When 
scarcely sixteen years of age, he joined the Confederate army, 
and throughout the civil war was a gallant soldier. He be- 
gan to preach when about twenty-four years old, and has 
served as pastor at Port Gibson and Crystal Springs, Miss., Bir- 
mingham, Ala., and is now pastor in New Orleans, La. Dr. 
Purser has made a fine record. Churches under his care have, 
without exception, grown in numbers and influence, and he has 
often sent out new churches. As State evangelist, at different 
times, for Mississippi and Alabama, he has been successful with- 
out being sensational. Believing strongly in the Bible, he studies 
it carefully and preaches it faithfully. In self-control, unselfish- 
ness, common sense, and energy of thought and action, may be 
found the secret of his success and popularity. 




D. I. Purser, D. D. 



XXIII 
HONOR FOR SERVICE 1 

BY D. I. PURSER, D. D. 

" If any man serve me, him will my Father honour.^ John 12 : 26. 

THIS is an age of honor seeking. We urge our 
children to strive for the honors in school ; we 
rejoice with them when they obtain these honors. 
We are glad when we or our countrymen are honored ; 
and from our hearts we say, God speed the day when 
all our men may be worthy of honor, whether they 
are awarded the meed of praise by being entrusted 
with responsibilities or not. It is in no wise wrong 
to seek honor, if only it be sought in an honorable 
way in " well-doing." The Apostle Paul urges us to 
"seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal 
life n (Rom. 2 : 7). Avowing then, the wisdom of a 
Christian's seeking honor, we ask : How shall he 
obtain it ? Our text gives us a simple, concise an- 
swer, " If any man serve me, him will my Father 
honor." This text naturally divides itself into two 
parts : 

I. The service required or rendered. . 

II. The honor conferred or received. 

There is one question which confronts us at almost 
every step in life, certainly at every important turn- 
ing point, viz.: " Will it pay?" If any business 
proposition is made to us, any proposition relating to 
social or domestic life, the first question that thrusts 
itself upon us is, " Will it pay?" In this intensely 

1 Preached in the Foundry Methodist Church, Washington, D. C, dur- 
ing the Jubilee Session of the Southern Baptist Convention. 

255 



256 the southern baptist pulpit 

practical age, when men and women are seeking the 
prosaic, business side of every pursuit in life, it is 
natural for us to consider, for ourselves and for those 
we love, this question concerning the proposition of 
the text. We may settle it here, just as we do in 
other matters, viz., by estimating, as far as possible, 
the outlay and the income. If a man invests five 
thousand dollars and receives ten thousand dollars, 
he knows he has made a good investment. It pays 
and the man is pleased. But if he receives only four, 
or three, or two thousand dollars in return for an in- 
vestment of five thousand dollars, he knows he has 
made a bad investment. It does not pay, and the 
man is disappointed. When we seek to know 
whether it pays to be a Christian, we inquire, Does 
the honor promised compensate for the service ren- 
dered ? 

I. Let us examine and see what are the leading 
characteristics of this service. 

(a) It is sincere, honest, heartfelt. We may de- 
ceive others and even ourselves, but we cannot de- 
ceive God, whose eye peers down into the deepest re- 
cesses of our souls, {b) The service is to be rendered 
to Christ, " If any man serve me" Many men serve 
themselves, or their local churches, or their denomi- 
nations, and serve them alone ; whereas, the local 
church, the denomination, and every other enterprise, 
should be served only so far as we can glorify God 
and serve Christ thereby. It is possible, yea, even 
probable, that many who claim and even seem to 
serve Christ are never honored here or hereafter, be- 
cause they are only serving self. The motive which 
actuates us must be a desire to glorify God. Selfish- 
ness, therefore, must be eliminated from our hearts, 
and self-interest from our plans and calculations in 
order that we may render acceptable service to Christ. 
This service must not only be the result of proper 
motives, but must be {c) exact, according to the letter 



HONOR FOR SERVICE 257 

of the law as far as we can understand its teachings. 
We are not to be our own judges of what we are to 
do, but must from our hearts say, u L,ord, what wilt 
thou have me to do?" Willing, faithful, obedient 
service is the only scriptural evidence of our conver- 
sion, of our faith in Christ, and our oneness with 
him, and of the acceptableness of our service to him. 
This service is the most difficult undertaking of man. 

First, because it requires perfect submission to 
God's will. 

Second, it requires us to acknowledge our nothing- 
ness and forces us, by God's grace, to strive to root 
out all pride from our hearts. After we have fully 
surrendered ourselves to Christ and become Christians, 
on the heart's unseen battlefield the fierce war con- 
tinues all along life's journey. All intelligent Chris- 
tians admit that all our time and energies must be de- 
voted to him who died for us ; that whatsoever we do, 
whether in word or deed, we must do all to the glory 
of God. But, by reason of the value and greatness 
of the honor conferred on those who serve Christ, 
were the difficulties of such a consecration tenfold 
greater than they are, I would still insist that serving 
God is the best investment ever made by mortal man. 
The world says, " Where is the honor? The wicked 
spread themselves as green bay trees, while the good 
and pure go on in poverty ; the unjust gather to them- 
selves great wealth, while the righteous have a hard 
struggle for bread. But who thinks of honoring the 
Christian? and with what is he honored?" I an- 
swer, The honors are conferred not by the puny 
hands of weak men, but by the King of kings. 

II. The Christian is honored : 

First, with the gift of eternal life. 

What is eternal life ? I cannot tell you ; your 
pastor cannot tell you ; no man among all these pul- 
pit orators and educators who compose this great con- 
vention can tell all that is comprehended in the term 



258 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

eternal life. We can make some suggestions by way 
of aiding you to estimate its value. 

The immense travel from North to South in the 
autumn and from South to North in the spring, is 
not confined to the wealthy, but is largely made up 
of poor people in search of health. Many fathers and 
mothers practise the most rigid economy while at 
home and away in order to spend much of their time 
at watering places, striving by every possible means 
to prolong their lives. Visit our almshouses and our 
charity hospitals. See those poor unfortunates ! 
those deformed, helpless, physical wrecks, without 
homes, money, friends, relatives, or loved ones. Some 
one has called them, u Repulsive objects of charity." 
Did I hear you say, (( These would be glad to 
die"? Not so. Even here you fail to find a willing- 
ness to give up life unless calmed by the Spirit of 
God, or made reckless by a spirit of desperation. You 
turn away from such scenes and whisper to yourself, 
" Yes, all that a man hath will he give for his life." 
Yes, the natural man holds on to the thread of life 
with wonderful tenacity, and will suffer on and on, 
year after year, rather than part with that mysterious 
thing we- call life. Now, if this life of weakness and 
doubt, of fear and trembling, be so desirable and valu- 
able, what will that life be where weakness is turned 
into strength, and doubts shall fly away? If this 
life, where the flowers fade so soon is worth clinging 
to, what will be the joy of dwelling in that land 
where " eternal spring abides and never-fading flow- 
ers " ? If this life, where sorrow, pain, and bereave- 
ments are constantly sweeping over us, is worth such 
sacrifices as are made to hold it, what will that life 
be where there shall be no more pain, nor death, nor 
loss of loved ones ? If this life so charms us, where 
the night of trouble and disappointment comes with 
its long, lonely hours, and the night of death con- 
stantly confronts us, what will that life be where the 



HONOR FOR SERVICE 259 

gates stand open by day? For there is no night 
there. No night of sorrow, no night of disappoint- 
ment, no night of sin, no night of bereavement, no 
night of death is there. All, all is one eternal day ! 
The souls of the redeemed shall live on while God 
lives and eternity lasts ; for if any man serve Christ, 
he shall " survive the wreck of worlds, " and shall 
bask forever in the sunshine of God's glory. 

We know not, we know not, 
All human words show not, 

The joys we may reach ; 
The mansions preparing, 
The joys for our sharing, 

The welcome for each. 

Here deep is the sighing, 
And strong is the crying ; 

Here brief is the life ! 
The life there is endless, 
The joy there is endless, 

And ended the strife. 

If it be an honor to pass out of the high school into 
the university ; an honor to climb from the county 
court-room to the chief-justiceship of the United 
States, who shall undertake to measure the honor to 
be accorded to him who may dwell forever with God, 
spending eternal years 

Progressing in the love 
That's only learned in heaven ! His mind, 
Unclogged of clay and free to soar, 
Hath left the realms of doubt behind ; 
And wondrous things, which finite thought 
In vain essayed to solve, appear 
To his untasked inquiries, fraught 
With explanation strangely clear ! 
His reason owns no forced control 
As held it here in needless thrall ; 
God's mysteries court his questioning soul, 
And he may search and know them all. 



26o THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

Adoption into God's family is the second honor 
conferred upon the faithful servant of Christ. We 
hear much about families and their relative standing. 
Our newspapers devote whole columns to the u four 
hundred " of New York, to " the F. F. Vs.," to " the 
first families of Kentucky, " to " the first families of 
Charleston, " etc. It is regarded as a great honor to 
be connected with one of these honorable families. 

What are regarded as the elements of an honorable 
family ? 

First, ancient historic recognition. Some years 
ago Henry Ward Beecher and his sister, with a num- 
ber of others, met at Martha's Vineyard, to ascertain 
if possible their family genealogy. Many others in 
all parts of our country can speak with commendable 
pride of their forefathers who marched under the 
command of our American chieftain during the Revo- 
lutionary War. Many can go back and trace their line 
of descent through the Huguenots and Puritans to 
worthy ancestors beyond the sea. Queen Victoria 
boasts of having descended from the house of David. 
But let us turn to the third chapter of Luke and read 
of Jesus, who was supposed to have been the son of 
Joseph, and then follow his line of descent back be- 
yond David to Noah, Enoch, Seth, and Adam, who 
was the son of God. So by faith in Christ Jesus we 
are " born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, 
nor of the will of man, but of God" By the opera- 
tion of the Holy Spirit we become partakers of the 
divine nature. The Holy Spirit applies to our souls 
the efficacy of the blood of Christ, so that we become 
blood-kin to God through his son Jesus, who claims 
us as his brethren. So then we are the children of 
God, and are members of that family which antedates 
all other families. 

Second, another element of honorable family 
descent is wisdom. We speak of our great Wash- 
ington, of our Lee, Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Madi- 



HONOR FOR SERVICE 261 

son, and Jefferson ; we cross over to Europe, where 
they are now struggling for liberty of soul and body, 
and longing for the day to dawn when the freedom 
of soul and liberty of conscience enjoyed by our 
American people shall be enjoyed by them. But 
there seems to be no man wise enough to lead them 
out of bondage. I ask, why is this? and the an- 
swer comes from the word of God, " The world by 
wisdom knew not God." But our Father is infinite 
111 wisdom, good in greatness, and great in goodness. 
Then as people come to realize their need of wisdom, 
let them heed the admonition of God's word, " If any 
man lack wisdom let him ask of God, who giveth to 
all men liberally and upbraideth not" (James 1:5); 
for the head of our family is " o-reat in counsel and 
mighty in work " (Jer. 32 : 19) ; and " among all the 
wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms 
there is none like unto him " (Jer. 10 : 7). 

Third, wealth is regarded as a third mark of family 
pride. Job was the greatest man in the East. The 
Lord blessed Abraham with herds and cattle and gold 
and silver. Solomon's riches and influence were a 
wonder in the world, and called forth from the Queen 
of the South the expression, " The half has not been 
told me." In our day we have the Rothschilds, 
Goulds, Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and many other 
millionaires. But what are such families ! Even if 
they should all pool their interests and call it one 
fortune, it would be only as a drop in the ocean com- 
pared with the wealth of our Heavenly Father. All 
the merchandise and banks, railroads, factories, 
stocks and bonds, mining and naval interests, are as 
nothing to him. He can dispose of crowns and 
sceptres as easily as a child breaks a toy. He can 
set up and as easily tear down. We who are born of 
God are the children of a glorious king. Our Father 
is the owner of all the silver and gold of the world, 
and the cattle on a thousand hills is his also. We 



262 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

have noi yet come in possession of our patrimony, 
but 

We can read our titles clear 
To mansions in the skies. 

Twenty years ago in New Orleans, an influential, 
intelligent, wealthy man picked up a little newsboy, 
and adopted him as his own child. The elegant 
family mansion, with all its costly furniture, its 
superb paintings by the old masters, its musical 
instruments, the costly equipages, sugar plantation, 
the honored family name, with all the man owned, 
became the property, through legal heirship, of that 
little boy, who, until that adoption was a barefooted 
waif. He was sent to the best schools and colleges. 
Found without parents, without home, without repu- 
tation, nameless, all became his. Was he honored ? 
How incalculably greater the honor bestowed upon 
spiritual orphans who, though strangers and foreign- 
ers to the commonwealth of Israel, have been adopted 
into God's most glorious family, where angels are the 
servants, the Son of God the Elder Brother, and God 
himself their own Father ! 

Finally, we mention the home he gives us, for truly, 
" there's no place like home." The question of 
past ages has been, " If a man die, shall he live 
again?" and not only shall he live but where? 
Now, these great questions are answered ; for Christ 
brought life and immortality to light, and he said, 
" In my Father's house are many mansions, I go to 
prepare a place for you." For us, then, he has pre- 
pared a home, where the family shall all be gathered 
when time shall end and our labors are finished. 

u Home ! sweet, sweet home ! " So many have no 
home here in this world. There are persons whose 
ancestors for many generations have been tenants in 
other people's houses. Many families in this our 
favored land of liberty have no homes, and perhaps 



HONOR FOR SERVICE 263 

never will have any. The great corporations not 
only own the factories, but the houses in which the 
laborers live ; they almost own the laborers. How 
different when we think of "our Father's house" ! 
If we never own a home here, by the grace of God 
we may own one in heaven. There are many thou- 
sands whose homes to-day are mortgaged, and thou- 
sands of homes have been sold by foieclosure of the 
mortgages and the families turned out in the cold, 
heartless world. But not so is it with our home 
above. No power on earth or in hell can mortgage 
our home which our dear I,ord has gone to prepare. 
Oh ! how our thoughts run back to our childhood's 
home, and we seem to enter into a different atmos- 
phere, or, our minds may dwell on our present homes 
where wife and children are ! We may be entertained 
by some friend, and in his home, a palatial residence, 
with all the garniture of art, the finest furniture, 
exquisite bronzes and paintings, with musical instru- 
ments, rich in construction and tone. Whole libra- 
ries of costly books may be there. We may wander in 
the terraced lawns, amid rare flowers and shrubbery. 
Our friend may anticipate our every wish. But as 
the day grows old, and the stars peep from behind 
the heavenly dome, our hearts fly over vale and hill, 
over mountain and ocean, and we say, 

Be it ever so humble 
There's no place like home. 

The sacred memories, the loving hearts, the familiar 
faces, and the musical voices of a real home, can 
never be forgotten, nor reproduced when gone. The 
heart feels lighter, the sun shines brighter, the birds 
sing sweeter, the stars seem nearer, the days fly 
fleeter, and heaven seems dearer to us when we are 
in the midst of those influences which produce what 
we call home. But here u the eagle stirreth up her 



264 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

nest " and the sweetest homes are broken up. Sons 
and daughters marry and scatter. For a long time 
there were feast-days, bright Christmas times, father's 
and mother's birthdays, Thanksgiving days, when 
we all went home to a u family reunion." Father 
and mother would meet us and call us boys and girls ; 
and .with neighbors and friends we would spend a few 
happy days together. The old hearthstone was there, 
the bright fire, the old armed-chairs occupied by 
father and mother, the old clock was on the mantel, 
saying " Ever forever ; forever, never." But it did 
stop, and the old home is broken up. Perhaps the 
house is standing yet, but it is occupied by strangers ; 
or, even though some member of the family may still 
own the premises, these home reunions are now no 
longer possible to most of us ; for some of the 
dwellers there, have passed 

Beyond the parting- and the meeting, 
Beyond the farewell and the greeting. 

But by-and-by God shall honor us with a great fam- 
ily reunion which will never break up. 

Beyond the frost-chain and the fever, 
Beyond the ever and the never, 
We shall be soon. 

We have had some great expositions and world's 
fairs. The works of art, the inventions and discov- 
eries of men, and the productions of nature have been 
brought together, and the children of the civilized 
nations of the earth have met and clasped hands 
with the semi-civilized and the real heathen. All 
have come together in a reunion of the families of 
the earth. But how short has been their stay, and 
how unsatisfactory has been their meeting with each 
other ! But, the mighty God, even the Lord, hath 
spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the 



honor for service; 265 

sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the 
perfection of beauty, God hath shined. There is to 
be a great national and international family reunion, 
for a they shall come from the east and from the 
west, from the north and from the south, and shall sit 
down in the kingdom of God.'- Jesus Christ himself 
will welcome us ; from the King's son will we hear 
the " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
kingdom prepared for you from before the founda- 
tion of the world. ' ' We will stay there days, weeks, 
months, and years, and 

When we've been there ten thousand years, 

Bright shining as the sun, 
We've no less days to sing God's praise, 

Than when we first begun. 

Keep silence, and hear the rustling of the great 
throng as they go sweeping through the gates ! Look 
and see the righteous marching in, angels harping the 
" Harvest Home," and Jesus receiving them with out- 
stretched arms ! 

Love, rest, and home ! 

Come, Holy Spirit, and teach us all to render accept- 
able service to him who loved us and gave himself 
for us. Amen and amen. 



XXIV 

INFIDELITY AND CHRISTIANITY CONTRASTED 1 

BY T. H. PRITCHARD, D. D. 

" Their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being 
judges." Deut. 32 : 31. 

THE text was uttered by Moses tinder peculiar 
circumstances. The leader of Israel was now a 
hundred and twenty years old, and the Lord had said 
unto him, " Behold, thou slialt sleep with thy fathers, 
for thou shalt not go over this Jordan into the land 
that floweth with milk and honey." But before he 
should ascend Mount Nebo and surrender his pious 
soul to the God who gave it, the Almighty commanded 
him to deliver a dying charge to the sorrowing mul- 
titudes that had assembled to witness his departure. 
The chapter I have just read, opening with so much 
sublimity, was the valedictory sermon of Moses, and 
critics assure us that within this short discourse may 
be found the varied excellencies of every species of 
composition. Here are the terse and pithy expres- 
sions of vigorous prose, the sparkling beauties of 
poetic imagery, with the loftiest strains of sublime 
and grateful praise. 

Such being the literary excellencies of this sacred 
production, we are not surprised to find the God of 
Moses so frequently represented by the simile of a 
rock. Indeed, to express that which is sure in its 
foundation and enduring in character, the figure of a 
rock has always been a favorite one with the poets. 

1 A baccalaureate sermon. 
266 




T. H. Pritchard, D. D. 



Thomas Henderson Pritchard was born in Charlotte, N. 
C, on the 8th of February, 1832. His father, Joseph Price 
Pritchard, was a native of Charleston, S. C. ; was reared an 
Episcopalian, but became a Baptist from principle, and preached 
the gospel for fifty years. He died in Texas, in 1890, at the ad- 
vanced age of eighty-four. His mother, Eliza Hunter Hender- 
son, was the daughter of a family that traces i:s history from 
Thomas Henderson, who emigrated from Scotland and landed 
at Jamestown, Va., in 1607. His descendant, 'Samuel Hender- 
son, was the progenitor of the North Carolina branch of that 
distinguished family, being the father of Judge Richard Hen- 
derson, and the grandfather of Chief Justice Leonard Hen- 
derson. Dr. Pritchard was graduated from Wake Forest 
College in 1854, delivering the valedictory. In 1858 he read 
theology with Dr. John A. Broadus, at Charlottesville, taking 
a course in the University of Virginia at the same time. He 
has been pastor of the Franklin Square Church, in Baltimore, 
the First Church, Raleigh, N. C, First Church, Petersburg, Va., 
Broadway, Louisville, Ky., Wilmington, N. C, and is now 
serving the Tryon Street Church, Charlotte, N. C. Dr. Pritchard 
was president of Wake Forest College for three years. He 
preached the Convention sermon when that body met in 
Charleston, in May, 1875. He received his doctorate from the 
University of North Carolina, in 1868. 



INFIDELITY AND CHRISTIANITY CONTRASTED 267 

Virgil, in describing the decision of character of old 
Latinus, represents him — 

As a rock unmoved, a rock that braves 
. The raging tempest and the rising waves, 
Propped in himself he stands, 

and proudly dashes back the impotent billows of his 
enemies' wrath. Isaiah speaks of the protecting 
power of God as resembling the shadow of a great 
rock in a weary land, to screen the way-worn traveler 
from the bitter winds which prevail at night and the 
scorching rays of an Oriental sun. And David breaks 
forth in his* rapturous faith, " He is my rock and my 
fortress, the rock of my salvation and my refuge for- 
ever." It is most comforting to the pious soul to 
express its confidence in " the sure mercies of David " 
by that which is thus stable and enduring. 

The word " rock," you observe, occurs twice in the 
text, and has a different meaning according to its ap- 
plication. Its sense is determined by the pronouns 
which precede it. In the one case it represents the 
eternal God ; in the other various theories and specu- 
lations which the enemies of religion entertain. 

The kind of evidence to be adduced demands a 
moment's consideration before we proceed farther. 
Our enemies themselves are to furnish the proof of 
their own convictions. Now in all our courts of jus- 
tice, evidence submitted by a person in his friend's 
favor is regarded as valid, even though it may be 
known that he is anxious for that friend's acquittal. 
Testimony by parties entirely disinterested is, from 
moral considerations, entitled to more weight ; but 
when the force of truth is such as to make men swear 
in favor of their enemies, the conviction that they 
speak the truth is always most satisfactory and con- 
clusive. But still more when it is known to be an 
implacable enemy of the accused, and for his con- 
viction he suppresses or garbles the truth, and is de- 



268 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

tected in his infamous design, the innocence of the 
accused is but revealed in the more beautiful and 
transparent colors. L,et us remember this in the dis- 
cussion to which we are about to address ourselves. 

i. (a) Among the enemies of Christianity we no- 
tice, first, the atheist, who denies the existence of 
God, and declares that the physical organization 
which we call the world is the result of chance ; that 
notwithstanding the wonderful beauty, the perfect 
regularity and evident design everywhere exhibited 
in the material universe, it is all the result of a for- 
tuitous arrangement of the particles of matter. We 
might ask, whence originated these particles of mat- 
ter ? Were they too the result of chance, and of that 
undefined something which he calls fate? Did man, 
the very paragon of animals, spring up from the earth 
as do the fruits of the field ? Did chance mold the sym- 
metry of his form and bestow the lofty capacities of his 
intellect ? Why do we not now behold human beings 
in the transition state being converted by chance from 
inanimate particles of matter into sentient, intelli- 
gent creatures ? The whole theory is an absurdity. 
What is chance ? We take the paring of an apple, 
as children often do, and throwing it on the floor say, 
if in falling it forms a letter, it is by chance. We 
see, from the nature of the experiment, that the more 
complicated its character, the less probability is there 
of an intelligible result. If, instead of the apple 
peel, we take a hatful of letters and scatter them at 
random over the floor, how long might one be thus 
engaged before a single sentence or even a word 
would be formed ? Would it not be absurd to hope 
thus to create a book of poems ? But the great book 
of creation is far more complicate and exhibits far 
more of design than the u Iliad " of Homer, or the 
" Paradise " of Milton. But why waste time on such 
folly? Verily, the Scriptures have declared, "The 
fool hath said in his heart, there is no God." The 



INFIDELITY AND CHRISTIANITY CONTRASTED 269 

rock of the atheist is a fool's position, the Scriptures 
being judge. 

This, beloved, is speculative atheism, and though 
treatises have been written in its support, I very much 
question whether any sane man ever held such opin- 
ions. Would to God there were none other than 
speculative atheism in the world. But, alas for 
poor sinful nature, alas for the cause of Christ and 
the conversion of the world, we are all more or less 
practical atheists. We profess to believe that there 
is a God, and that he will reward those who dili- 
gently seek him. We believe that God will judge us 
in that great day for which all others were made, and 
yet in the very presence of the living God we com- 
mit sin and deport ourselves as if there were no God. 
When the celebrated Iyiither Rice heard of the suffer- 
ings of the missionary Ward in India ; when he read 
that the East India Company, determining to expel 
all ministers of the gospel from their territory, had 
driven him forth from the face of man to dwell in 
the jungles among wild beasts and poisonous serpents, 
and that he still persisted in remaining there that he 
might tell the poor heathen of a Saviour, Dr. Rice 
was moved to tears, and exclaimed to those around 
him: " Ah ! brethren, Brother Ward believes there 
is a God." 

(b) The deist is also an enemy to the Christian re- 
ligion, inasmuch as he rejects the Bible and Jesus 
Christ, though he does admit the existence of a God. 
The name deist was first assumed by some persons in 
France and Italy, who wished to disguise their hatred 
of Christianity under some less opprobrious name 
than that of atheist. Deists have no particular sys- 
tem of religion, but profess to be guided alone by rea- 
son and nature. They affirm that there is no neces- 
sity for a direct revelation, and therefore discard the 
teachings of the apostles and evangelists as so many 
dreams and fables. They hold, indeed, that God ere- 



270 the: southern baptist puupit 

ated the heavens and the earth, and that his character 
is revealed in his works — that we may "look through 
nature up to nature's God." In support of his posi- 
tion, the deist appeals to history, and from the fact 
that a few individuals among the heathen have be- 
lieved in but one God, and because all people of every 
age have had an idea of some existence superior to 
themselves, they therefore argue the sufficiency of 
the light of nature. Now just at this point we take 
issue with the deist, and will introduce his own wit- 
ness to testify in our favor. And in taking this po- 
sition I do not mean to disparage the light of nature. 
When properly interpreted, it does develop in a most 
beautiful and striking manner the character of the 
Creator. But I maintain that without the Bible we 
could never accurately comprehend the utterances 
of nature. It is true that David could say, " The 
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament 
showeth his handiwork," but David was an inspired 
man, and held the true doctrine of theism ; but I re- 
peat it, that I do not believe that any man ever has 
or ever will learn from nature alone so much of his 
duty to God as to secure his salvation. The priests 
of Egypt, it is said, taught that there was but one 
God, and so held a few of the philosophers of Greece 
and Rome ; but the Egyptians, doubtless, derived 
their theology from the captive Israelites, while the 
ancient philosophers received their notions from these 
same Egyptian priests, or directly from the prophe- 
cies of the Old Testament. Aristobulus, an ancient 
historian, tells us, and his testimony is corroborated 
by a statement in Second Maccabees, that there was 
a Greek translation of some of the books of the Old 
Testament four hundred years before Christ, and that 
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle consulted it in the com- 
position of their philosophic works. 

In the Alcibiades of Plato there is a description of 
a lawgiver that was to come, which is almost an ex- 



INFIDELITY AND CHRISTIANITY CONTRASTED 271 

act copy of the graphic account of the Messiah in 
the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. Indeed, Plato tells 
us himself that he derived his notions of God from 
the Syrian Fraternity ; which Syrian Fraternity 
was none other than the Jews themselves, unto 
whom were committed the oracles of God. 

But to bring the subject home to the deist. Would 
he be willing to exchange his existence in the nine- 
teenth century with the wisest of the sages of an- 
tiquity ? Would he be willing to entertain their 
notions of morality and worship their gods, even in 
the most cultivated and enlightened times of the 
past? 

Take Greece, for instance, in her palmiest days — 
when Athens was the intellectual eye of the universe, 
when Demosthenes thundered from the Bema, when 
Plato wrote and Pindar sang and Praxiteles used the 
chisel, when, in fine, painting, poetry, sculpture, and 
eloquence existed in a perfection never since attained — 
ask the deist if there have been greater natural men 
than the giants of that age who sought to solve the 
problem of man's being and destiny, and then let him 
give his testimony for Christianity. Would he be 
willing to worship such creatures as were Jupiter, 
Bacchus, Venus, and Mercury, with all the enormities 
ascribed to them, crimes and vices which, if com- 
mitted in this age, would bring down upon the perpe- 
trators the vengeance of an infuriated mob ? Ques- 
tion him as to the state of morals then existing — 
the condition of woman, the treatment of slaves, 
prisoners, and deformed infants. Did nature inspire 
Plato to teach the doctrine of a community of wives, 
Ivycurgus to commend dexterous thieving, Solon to 
allow sodomy, and Seneca to encourage drunkenness 
and suicide ? Would the deist dare commend these 
dark and impure precepts as worthy of general ac- 
ceptance? No! no! The intelligent deist would not 
be willing to live in an age of reason, even though 



■H 



272 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

that reason might be developed to the highest de- 
gree. 

But we have listened to the testimony of the 
strongest witness the deist can produce, as drawn 
from the experience of the most cultivated nations 
of the past, and we find that the world by wisdom 
knew not God then, nor does the world by wisdom 
know God now. Let us bring to the stand the most 
intelligent and refined heathen nations of the pres- 
ent age. Take the Chinese for instance. They are 
a cultivated people. It is said they discovered many 
of the mysteries of astronomy before Copernicus or 
Galileo lived. They had. invented glass and gun- 
powder and the art of printing, before other nations. 
One has to think in but the most cursory way to read 
the answer. 

The fact is, that the deist who may have correct 
notions of morality has not derived those ideas from 
nature, but has stolen them from the Bible ; and 
while he writes books to dishonor the oracles of God, 
he plagiarizes from that sacred volume the very best 
and purest thoughts of his own works. 

The declaration of the Scriptures is explicit. There 
is no other name under heaven, given among men 
whereby we must be saved, but that of Jesus, and we 
may question whether any individual of all the na- 
tions that have successively disappeared from this 
earth's arena has been saved by reason and nature. 
The history of reason guided by the light of nature, 
in all ages, has been one of darkness and doubt ; far, 
very far, from the clear and steady light which 
streams upon the Christian's path from the Sun of 
Righteousness. Verily the rock of the deist is not 
as our Rock. 

(c) The subject of infidelity and skepticism next 
claims our attention. Infidelity is a perfect Proteus 
in character — it assumes so many and such varied 
forms that it is difficult to define it accurately. 



INFIDELITY AND CHRISTIANITY CONTRASTED 273 

Suffice it to say, that as the term imports, infidelity is 
unbelief — a want of faith in God, and a rejection of 
all, or some of the principles of the Christian religion. 
It has presented in different ages and countries va- 
rious phases. In France it led to an abolition of the 
Christian Sabbath, and an utter refusal to recognize 
an overruling Providence. The weapons of attack 
resorted to by French infidels have been the coarsest 
ribaldry and the boldest blasphemy. In England, 
infidelity has been more philosophic, and affects to 
exhibit the discrepancy between the revelations of 
science and those of the Bible. 

The infidelity of Scotland has differed but little 
from that of England, though, perhaps, it is some- 
what more respectful toward religion, probably be- 
cause of the piety of public sentiment in that most 
moral of all countries. In Germany, infidelity is 
pantheism, the prime article of which faith is, that 
the universe is God. By some a system is held called 
neology, which has its basis in the science of meta- 
physics, and abounds in conjectures and speculations 
of a rationalistic character, leading men to rely upon 
reason and nature, rather than revelation, for spiritual 
light. 

In the United States we have infidelity diversified. 
Scientific infidelity, spiritualism, transcendentalism, 
as held by Theodore Parker and Waldo Emerson ; 
free-loveism, communism, Universalism, Mormonism, 
and many others not less pernicious, though more re- 
stricted in their influence. 

2. When we observe such phenomena in the history 
of the moral world, we are constrained to ask, Why 
do men reject the wisdom of God and embrace such 
follies ? The reasons are manifold : 

(a) With some, such notions arise from an affecta- 
tion of singularity. They are ambitious of the char- 
acter of original thinkers, and from a morbid sense 
of independence, wish never to tread in a beaten 



274 TH ^ SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

path. Satisfy them that all the world holds a system 
as true, and for that very reason they discard it. The 
notions of morality which have come down to us, 
venerable for their antiquity and revered for their 
purity, they regard as exploded follies, fit only to be 
held by the old fogies of this progressive age. 

As for themselves, they must have something new, 
and no matter whence its origin, or how absurd its 
essence, if it is something unusual, they at once em- 
brace it; and not unfrequently may these sapient 
philosophers be heard delivering, with all the zest of 
original discovery, objections against Christianity as 
old as Porphyry and Celsus, and which, perhaps, they 
think they may gain the credit of inventing. 

(b) Infidelity often springs up in the heart from an- 
other kind of pride — pride of learning. The arro- 
gant self-sufficiency generated by human learning has 
doubtless been a fruitful source of infidelity in all 
ages. How different this spirit from that which al- 
ways distinguishes the truly erudite and wise ! u A 
little learning is a dangerous thing, " but sound and 
extensive knowledge serves to correct this unseemly 
pride and induce a solid frame of mind. Socrates, 
the wisest of the ancient philosophers, professed only 
to know that he knew nothing, and Sir Isaac New- 
ton, the greatest philosopher of all time, when com- 
plimented on his great attainments in science, re- 
plied with beautiful modesty, " that he had accom- 
plished but little ; he had been but as a child gath- 
ering a few pebbles on the beach, while the great 
ocean of truth lay unexplored before him." 

(c) Again, it is a lamentable fact that the con- 
duct of professing Christians furnishes one of the 
strongest pleas for infidelity. They have the form of 
godliness, but deny the power thereof in their daily 
deportment, and thus the world is taught to doubt 
the vitality of religion, and lapses into infidelity. It 
is in the house of her friends and by the unfaithful- 



INFIDELITY AND CHRISTIANITY CONTRASTED 275 

ness of her own adherents that the heaviest blows are 
dealt against Christianity. Were they but true to 
their high vocation, infidelity would be deprived of 
the food upon which it fattens, and would hide its 
diminished head in shame and dishonor. Let us 
never forget that u Conduct hath the loudest tongue." 
(d) But not to be tedious in assigning the causes of 
infidelity, the great and prime reason why men are 
infidels is because they wish to be ; because of the 
wickedness of their own hearts ; because the gospel has 
upon its very frontlet the command of Christ, Deny 
thyself, and take up thy cross and follow me. The 
truth is, u infidelity is rather a disease of the heart 
than of the head." Men believe Moses false and 
the Bible a bundle of fables, because by that Bible 
their own evil deeds are condemned ; because they 
love darkness rather that light. The Earl of Roches- 
ter, once an arrant infidel, used to say in his old age, 
laying his hand upon the Bible, u Here is true phi- 
losophy. This is the wisdom that speaks to the heart. 
A bad life is the only grand objection to this book." 
This last declaration is intensely true. The history 
of infidelity shows scarcely a single exception to this 
sweeping declaration. No man who has any self-re- 
spect would care to read aloud in company some ex- 
pressions in Voltaire's works, even when treating of 
the most sacred subjects. J. J. Rousseau has acknowl- 
edged in his " Confession," that on one occasion he had 
the baseness to steal an article, and rather than con- 
fess the theft, he suffered an honest servant girl to 
lose her place and her character. His book of con- 
fessions closes with these remarkable words : " When- 
ever the last trump shall sound, I will present myself 
before the Sovereign Judge with this book in my 
hand, and loudly proclaim, ( Thus .have I acted — 
these were my thoughts — such was I, Power Eternal ! 
Assemble around thy throne the innumerable throng 
of my fellow-mortals. Let them listen to my con- 



276 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

fessions ; let them blush at my depravity ; let them 
tremble at my sufferings. I,et each in turn expose 
the failings and wanderings of his own heart with 
equal sincerity, and, if he dare, say, " I was better than 
that man." ' ". 

How utterly abandoned must have been the man 
who could affect to make a merit of such confessions 
before the throne of the Most High, and who could 
thus charge all mankind with guilt equal to his own ! 
"No books are so plain as the lives of men, no char- 
acters so legible as their moral conduct. " The great 
offense of the cross is its purity. 'Twas the ineffable 
innocence of the Saviour that filled the heart of Vol- 
taire with such malignant rancor and made him close 
his letters to his familiar friends with the expression, 
" Crush the wretch ! " meaning thereby the blessed 
Jesus. Fit language of the great apostle of infidelity, 
the high priest of Satan on earth. Nor has infidelity 
changed in its spirit and essence since the more able 
and vehement of its advocates have passed from the 
scene of action. 

3. (a) Another feature of infidelity closely allied 
to the last, is the ignorance of its adherents in respect 
to that very religion they so vauntingly disclaim. I 
am free to admit that many of them have been men 
of great attainments in science and literature ; never- 
theless, these very men have, through sinful igno- 
rance, rejected the Christian religion. Their own con- 
fessions prove this. Tom Paine confines himself to 
the Old Testament in assailing the Scriptures, and 
Hume confesses that he never read the New Testa- 
ment through in his life, while Voltaire betrays his 
egregious ignorance by speaking of "the book of 
Moses, the book of Genesis, and the book of Penta- 
teuch." 

(b) And yet again ; the manner in which infidels 
have attacked Christianity — the unfair and dishonest 
means to which they have resorted, prove that their 



INFIDKUTY AND CHRISTIANITY CONTRASTED 277 

rock is not as our Rock, and that their cause is not 
only a weak but a wicked one. Infidels harp upon the 
mysteries of the Bible, as if there were not mystery 
in everything- God has made, and as if we might ex- 
pect with our finite powers to comprehend everything 
in a book which reveals the character of the Infinite. 
They detect trifling errors in chronology and history, 
which have been time and again explained and recon- 
ciled, and though they are fully apprised of this, each 
successive school, in the most disingenuous manner, 
iterates and reiterates those charges as if they were 
vital to the cardinal doctrines of Christianity. 

(c) A very frequent and plausible objection pre- 
ferred against Christianity by its enemies is the want 
of unity among its own adherents. There are so 
many different sects, holding such diverse systems of 
doctrine, that it is affirmed that nothing may be re- 
lied on as true, and therefore it is the part of wisdom 
to reject the whole. Now, it is a lamentable fact that 
there are many sects ; it is true, moreover, that we do 
sometimes contend among ourselves with a degree of 
acrimony which the spirit of the gospel does not 
justify. 

But is this a legitimate objection to Christianity ? 
Is there not a union of sympathy in the experience 
of all true Christians? You may gather Christians 
from all parts of the globe — bring a Hottentot, a 
Greenlander, a South Sea Islander, a stupid African 
or a cultured Caucasian — I care not where they may 
have been born or what dialect they speak, if genuine 
Christians they will all have substantially the same 
experience, the same repentance, the same faith, and 
will hope to reach the same heaven at last. 

But does not this objection recoil with fatal force 
against all the systems of infidelity ? Some systems 
declare there is a God, others deny it. Some affirm 
that the soul is immortal, others do not admit that 
man has a soul. One system contends that man 

v 



2?8 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

should be under some kind of moral law ; another 
that he is a law unto himself, and should follow his 
own inclinations. Their confusion is like that of the 
tower of Babel, and yet they denounce the believers 
in Christianity as superstitious and credulous dupes, 
because we will not trample under foot the " sure 
mercies of David,'' and embrace their false and base- 
less systems of sin and iniquity. 

But finallv it is in death that the true merits of in- 
fidelity and Christianity appear. The dying beds of 
infidels, in utterance distinct and awful, declare that 
their rock is not as our Rock. 

The well-known story of Col. Ethan Allen is a 
striking illustration of the utter insufficiency of infi- 
delity in the hour of death. Col. Allen was a gallant 
patriot, but an avowed infidel. He had an only child, 
a beautiful daughter on whom he lavished every care. 
When in the flush of early womanhood, this daugh- 
ter sickened and died. As she lay, awaiting the 
approach of death, she took her father's hand and 
said : " Father, mother has told me to take Jesus as 
my Saviour, while you have told me that Jesus is no 
Saviour. Which must I believe now ? " The heart 
of the strong man was moved to its profoundest 
depths. He had faced the cannon's mouth un- 
blanched, but he trembled like an aspen before his 
dying child, as with choked utterance he replied, 
" My daughter, believe your mother." 

Some years since, one of two young Americans, 
who were in Paris, was taken ill. In seeking a nurse 
to care for his sick friend, the other encountered an 
old woman who had nursed Voltaire in his last ill- 
ness. The first question she asked when applied to 
was, " Is your friend a Christian ? " " He is," replied 
he, u but why do you ask such a question?" "I 
nursed Voltaire," rejoined the old woman, " and I 
wouldn't see another infidel die for all the gold there 
is in France." 



INFIDELITY AND CHRISTIANITY CONTRASTED 2jg 

How different the condition of the great apostle 
to the Gentiles, when about to be put to death : " I 
am now ready to be offered, and the time of my 
departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, 
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. 
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of right- 
eousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall 
give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all 
them also that love his appearing." 

Byron wrote thus sadly the year he died : 

My days are in the yellow leaf, 

The fruits and flowers of love are gone ; 
The worm, the canker, and the grief, 
Are mine alone. 

The fire that on my bosom preys 

Is lone as some volcanic isle, 
No torch is kindled at its blaze ; 
A funeral pile. 

Permit me, in conclusion, to present this contrast 
as drawn by the poet Montgomery in a few masterly 
strokes : 

Lo yonder, in that fancy-haunted room 
What muttered curses tremble thro' the gloom, 
Where pale and shining, and bedewed with fear, 
The dying skeptic feels his hour draw near. 
From his parched lips no meek hosannas fall, 
No bright hope kindles at his last farewell. 
He gnashes, scowls, and raises hideous shrieks, 
As the last throes of death convulse his cheeks ; 
He rounds his eyes into a ghastly glare, 
Locks his white lips, and all is mute despair. 

To the infidel he says : 

Go, child of darkness, see a Christian die, 
No horror pales his lips or dims his eye ; 
No fiend-shaped phantoms of destruction start 
The hope religion pillows in his heart ; 



28o THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

When, with a faltering hand, he waves adieu 
To all who love so well and weep so true ; 
Meek as an infant to the mother's breast 
Turns fondly longing for its wonted rest, 
He pants for where congenial spirits stray, 
Looks to his God and sighs his soul away. 

Verily " their rock is not as our Rock, even our 
enemies themselves being judges." 



J. B. Cranfill was born in Parker County, Tex., September 
12, 1858, of Baptist parents. His father, Rev. E. A. Cranfill, 
is still living. His early life was spent on a farm and as a cow- 
boy, and his education was procured from the Texas country 
schools of that period. He was converted at the age of eighteen 
and joined the Baptist church. In 1878 he married Miss Ollie 
Allen, at Crawford, Tex. After his marriage he practised medi- 
cine for about three years, and then began the publication of 
the ' ' Gatesville Advance, ' ' a weekly paper which became distin- 
guished for its advocacy of temperance and prohibition. In 1886 
he was licensed to preach and was ordained by the First Baptist 
Church, Waco, in 1890, From 1889 to 1892 he was superin- 
tendent of Texas Baptist mission work. He is editor and sole 
proprietor of the ' ' Texas Baptist Standard, ' ' and proprietor of 
the ' ' Kentucky Baptist Standard, ' ' and the ' ' Indian Baptist 
Standard." He is the compiler of a book of sermons by Dr. 
B. H. Carroll. In addition to his editorial labors and literary 
work, he has been prominently identified for many years with 
the prohibition movement, having been the candidate for vice- 
president of the United States on that ticket in 1892. He is also 
in great demand as a lecturer. 




Rev. J. B. Cranfill. 



XXV 

A MAN IN HELL 

BY REV. J. B. CRANFILL. 

" The rich man also died, and was buried ; and in hell he lifted up his 
eyes, being in torments." Luke 1 6 : 22, 23. 

IT is well from time to time in this short journey of 
our lives to stop and take our bearings, not only 
as regards this world, but as regards eternity. This 
is a very busy life we are living ; there is a great rush, 
great excitement, great and powerful movements, 
with a broad sweep of power; and in the whirl 
and excitement we sometimes are prone to forget 
that after a while this fitful fever shall end ; that 
after a little these that abide with us now shall have 
gone, and after a little while we shall have taken up 
our abode eternally in heaven or in hell. There are 
but two places of abode for the spirits of men after 
death. One of these places is heaven. God, Jesus 
on the throne, the angels and spirits of just men 
made perfect are there. That is heaven. In hell are 
the devil, the deviPs angels, and the spirits of evil 
men who have passed into that nether world. 

The text before us, or rather the entire lesson — for 
I wish to speak about the entire lesson rather than 
the few words announced as a text — begins by say- 
ing that there was a certain rich man. It does not 
give his name. It does not matter what his name 
was — a certain rich man. It is not a crime to be a 
rich man. There is many a poor man that is rich in 
a certain sense. He is rich in evil ; rich in bad deeds ; 
rich in evil associations ; rich in his scorn of God. 

281 



282 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

Riches in themselves are not criminal. There is 
many a rich man, as we count riches, whose heart is 
tender, and who is really rich toward God, and who 
is touched with a feeling of the infirmities of every 
poor beggar under the shining stars. It is not a 
crime then to be rich ; and I have never had any 
sympathy with the great cry of people against the 
rich. It is a great temptation to be rich. I never 
shall forget the prayer recorded in the Old Testa- 
ment, "Give me neither poverty nor riches." I have 
thought sometimes I would like to be rich. I fear 
it comes to us all in some time of special temptation, 
of special allurement by the world. We wish we 
could be rich ; but when we come to think about it 
soberly, we had better not be really rich in this 
world's goods, because there come great temptations 
with riches. But as I said before, I have no sympathy 
with the idea that is getting deeper and broader in 
our country, that to be rich is evil in itself, and 
that riches must be pounced upon and destroyed 
and divided out among tramps and anarchists. All 
such doctrine comes from the devil. Neither is it a 
crime to be poor. The really poor can be rich toward 
God. Look at this man's name now. The poor man 
has a name. There was a certain rich man, and then 
there was a certain beggar named Lazarus. You 
know Lazarus' name meant "helped of God." That 
is the interpretation of his name. 

And now let us go and see the picture. See the 
mansion with its broad spacious grounds, the blooming 
flowers, and the fruits in the fields ; and then see down 
at the gate a poor man with a crutch. There he was, 
laid at the gate, full of sores. Lazarus had very likely 
been a very prosperous workingman. It is quite likely 
that at one time he had wrought mightily with his 
hands and made his daily bread and looked up to no- 
body except to God. But oh, the great misfortune of a 
poor man when he is sick. I tell you it is an awful 



A MAN IN HELL 283 

thing to be sick at all, but it is transcendently awful 
to be sick when you are poor, when you cannot make 
the daily two dollars. Not long ago it came very 
close to me. A man in my employ, and as kingly a 
man as ever wore the crown of honest labor, got sick, 
and I could see the pain written all over his face 
when he failed to earn his two dollars a day. It was 
dreadful. And the fact that Lazarus was a beggar 
was no disgrace to him, because he was sick. He 
was not a beggar by choice. He was not a tramp. 
He did not go around, a healthy and stalwart man, 
and go to the back kitchen door and say, "I wish 
you would give me some bread." I have no respect 
for a tramp — I mean a well tramp. A man in this 
country who would go out begging for a cup of cof- 
fee, who has two good strong arms on him and health 
flushing his face : shame on him ! Lazarus was a 
beggar because he was sick, and here he was at the 
rich man's gate. You look at these plain statements 
of fact. Most of the commentaries say that this was a 
parable. It may have been a parable, but I don't be- 
lieve it was a parable. In another place where Jesus 
mentions a rich man the Scripture says, u He spoke a 
parable unto them." In this case there is no parable 
in it, but a plain statement of plain, everyday facts. 
This plain statement was not a parable, as I under- 
stand it, but Jesus Christ rent the veil and made that 
recital of an everyday occurrence in every age. He 
simply raised the curtain and said, " And Lazarus 
died." 

Let us now think about the rich man a moment. 
He was having a good time ; he fared sumptuously 
every day. He went and took a box at the theatre 
and saw the play with opera glasses. He played his 
game of social cards, and bet a little. He was not 
really a bad gambler, or else he would not have been 
rich. And he attended the "german," went down to 
the saloon on Sunday and drank his wines and whis- 



284 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

kies. He was probably a member of the local politi- 
cal executive committee and had influence in the 
community ; a man who thought about everything 
except God and heaven and eternity ; grasping his 
money, despising God's homeless poor that came to 
his gate and begged : " Oh, mister, just let me come 
after dinner is over and eat the crumbs that fall from 
the table !" He took a stick and drove him away 
from the gate. 

" There was a certain beggar." I have thought 
about that beggar many a time. I do not think I 
will ever again let any beggar pass me by without 
giving him something. I do. not mean tramps. As 
I before stated, I have no respect for tramps ; and I 
wish you would never have any respect for tramps. 
But I talk about beggars, people who are really in 
distress, who have sadness written on their faces and 
poverty marked all over them. It was only the other 
day in the city of New York, a poor beggar on Broad- 
way came up to me and said, " Oh, give me money ; 
help me." You could see poverty all over him ; see 
that hope had left his heart and despair had come to 
live with him. I make a plea here to-day, whether 
you have much or little, that you remember the 
homeless poor, and help them. The day will come 
when it will have been more to you to have invested 
money in a really deserving poor man than to have 
had a million dollars stock in the Bank of England. 

But see the change of scene. Look how sublimely 
our Saviour goes right on with the story. He does 
not stop to explain anything about the difference be- 
tween time and eternity. That is not his purpose just 
now ; but he is depicting the lives of these two men. 
And he says : " The rich man also died and was 
buried." See the contrast between the statement 
made just before about Lazarus: " And . . . the 
beggar died and was carried by the angels." He did 
not stop to say whether he was buried or not. The 



A MAN IN HELL 285 

chances are that he was not buried. Probably he 
dragged himself into some lonely, sequestered spot, 
and there died. Jesus did not say that he was buried, 
but the rich man died and was buried. See the fu- 
neral procession. Maybe no real mourners even then. 
He had five brothers, but they were probably glad he 
was dead. They will get his money now and have 
a good time over it. But here is the long funeral 
procession following the man out to the grave, with 
all the trappings of funerals. On this point I wish 
to say a word in passing. The saddest thing to me, 
sadder than the funeral itself, is to see the great pomp 
and circumstance of some funerals. Oh, the money 
that is wasted, literally wasted, burying men. Some 
of the rich pay out thousands of dollars for funerals, 
and on every side God's cause lifts up its empty hands 
and the hungry and poor and thinly clad are dying for 
the very bread of life. Lazarus died and was carried 
by the angels. The rich man died and, in hell he 
lifted up his eyes — in hell. 

Now this brings us to the subject of our sermon, 
" A Man in Hell." Stop a moment. Is this an idle 
picture ? The worst and most malignant enemies that 
Jesus Christ ever had never accused him of telling a 
lie. You take all the literature written against him 
to prove that he was not divine, and with one con- 
sensus of opinion, one acclaim, one voice, all litera- 
ture says, " Jesus Christ was a good man." And here 
he says that this man lifted up his eyes in hell. The 
curtain is raised. There is the man in hell. Time 
to him is dead. Opportunity to him is gone forever. 
He has passed from life's arena. There was sun- 
shine yesterday ; the funeral to-day ; hell to-day. 
Eternity, eternity, eternity, has come and the man is 
in hell. See him. He prays — the first time perhaps 
in all his life that he had ever prayed, and he says, 
" Oh, Father Abraham ! " Repentance has come. 

Did you ever visit a jail ? The most humble lot of 



286 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

repentant sinners on earth are in jail. I have talked 
to men, I have preached to men in jail. They will all 
give their hand ; they all want to be saved. Why ? 
Because they are caught. Not because they com- 
mitted a crime, but because the sleuth-hound of the 
law has tracked them down, and now they find them- 
selves incarcerated and the bolts and bars shut them 
in and there is no hope of escape. They are all hum- 
ble, all penitent. AH of them say, " I wish I was out 
again. If I were I would be a better man." Turn 
one out and he would steal a horse to-morrow night. 
A man in hell ! There was a quaint, strange book 
anonymously written in England entitled, " Letters 
from HelL" I wish all sinners might read those 
letters, though they are imaginarv. But, oh, hear 
the cold, solemn words of Jesus. They are not imag- 
inary. Don't they cause the cold chills to run over 
you to-day as you hear the words of our Saviour, 
awful in their terror and truthfulness ? " In hell he 
lifted up his eyes." I don't suppose he believed in 
hell at all while he lived. I suppose he had argued 
many a time to prove that there was no hereafter 
at all, and he had said, " Oh, this nonsense that these 
people talk about. There is no such place. Get the 
thing out of my mind, I don't want to hear about 
it. " But hear me to-day, fellow-traveler to the grave : 
shutting one's eyes does not put out the fire. You 
may hear the crackling of the flames and the jingle 
of the firemen's bell, and the shout of the firemen's 
captain. You may hear the word, " Fire ! " And yet 
you shut your eyes and say, u I don't see any fire ; I 
don't believe there is any fire." But the fire rages 
still, and block after block of buildings is consumed 
and crashes in. Oh, vain man, to-day I thunder in 
your ears, warranted by the word of God and by the 
burning sentences of Jesus of Nazareth — there is a 
hell ! And every unrepentant man, when the gate 
of death confronts him and opens wide its portals for 



A MAN IN HEU, 287 

him to pass in, will go down into that darkness — 
into that darkness from which no traveler has ever 
returned, and in the gloom of whose surroundings no 
prayer has ever been answered. Hear him pray, 
" Oh, father Abraham." Here is prayer to-day. I 
talked to a man once who said he never had prayed 
in his life, and didn't believe in prayer. But hear 
me to-day : The man that dies without believing and 
praying, wakes up in hell with prayer on his tongue 
and says, "Oh, father Abraham." Here is realiza- 
tion at last. 

We have often seen men building sidewalks of 
cement. When the cement was first put down they 
put planks over it. Why? It was soft. They are 
to protect it. Once in a while a dog will get on any- 
how, and there is his track on the cement sidewalk. 
Now the cement is as hard as adamant. Nothing 
could make a track on it now. Its days of softness 
are gone. It has become fixed, and no imprint can 
be made on it now. Once a little, tiny bird, singing 
in the trees beside it, could have lighted on it and 
left its little footprints there. It was soft. Once 
upon a time the man who is in hell to-day was a little 
boy playing at his mother's knee, and he had a tender 
heart in those childhood days, and oftentimes he wept. 
There were times when he looked up into his mother's 
face and asked her about God, and there were other 
times when he knelt down beside his little baby bed 
and said his childish prayer. That was a time of in- 
nocence, a time when there was a heart to feel and an 
ear to hear, but those times are gone forever. A hell, 
a real, eternal, irrevocable hell, awaits the impeni- 
tent man or the impenitent woman. 

And look at what Abraham said to him, " Son." 
And the very next word he said was, remember — 
"Son, remember." Oh, memory, art thou living 
yet? Quickened indeed by the very impulse of the 
burning flame, memory revives and takes the back 



288 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

track of the man's life and goes back into those days 
of innocence and love, goes back and feels the kiss of 
mother once again, goes back and hears the sermon 
in the old church, goes back to the very day when 
the preacher talked about hell and the man believed 
it not ; goes back to opportunity and sunshine and 
light again. Oh, memory, memory, memory ! Oh, 
if a man could go to hell and leave his memory be- 
hind him it would not be hell. After all, hell is 
memory and memory is hell. Take the debauchee. 
How does he feel this morning? Ah, if he had no 
memory ! But before he can get up and set his blood 
on fire again with the hellish liquor, he begins to 
think and think and think, to think of his little wife at 
home, his ragged children, and his wrecked manhood ; 
think of the strewn pathway of his life, beset all the 
way with thorns and tossed about with tempests. 
Memory ! Brother, hear me now. Draw a line fifty 
years from now and we will all be in heaven or in 
hell — everyone in this house, certainly every adult in 
this house ; just fifty short years and there will come 
to the sinner in this house to-day the memory of that 
quiet summer Sunday, when the preacher in the best 
way he knew, talked about hell, and the man in hell, 
and he will say, "Oh, give me back the life of that 
Sunday, " but it will be too late. Oh, may things 
terrestrial be made luminous with the light of eter- 
nity to-day, that men may see where they stand in 
the sight of Almighty God. May there come from 
the very throne of God a flash of supernal light, sped 
by his Spirit, that will seek the hearts of sinners in 
this house and cause them to fall down and say, "Oh, 
let me escape from the wrath to come ! " 

Out of the very fullness of my heart I plead with 
you to-day. Do not go with Dives into hell. Take 
your mother's hand, lean on the Saviour, and to-day 
plead for mercy from the throne of God ; for there is 
mercy to-day, and there is love to-day, and there are 



A MAN IN HEU, 289 

blessing and salvation to-day. But in hell, no answer 
to the prayer. There is something sad, oh, awfully 
sad, when you think about what this rich man said to 
Abraham. He thought somewhat about himself and 
said, " I am in torment here and I wish you would 
just let Lazarus come and give me a little sympathy, 
for I am tormented in these flames." But he did not 
stop there. He said, " Oh, Abraham, Abraham, send 
Lazarus back to the world again. I have one, two, 
three, four, five brothers, and they are just as I was. 
They heard the gospel and slighted it just as I did. 
And I led them into a thousand wrongs. I said to 
them, There is no hereafter. I said to them, There 
is no eternity. And, O God, I am in hell, and they 
are still unrepentant. And though I know that I 
cannot escape it, oh, send Lazarus down there to 
preach to them." Oh, memory, memory, memory! 
Light it up with a flash of eternity. But the man 
became a missionary just a day too late. Just a day 
too late he thought about the awfulness of the fact 
that his five brethren were not saved. Solemnly, 
earnestly, prayerfully, I press this scene on your 
hearts this morning: A lost man. Time is over. 
Riches all gone. They are of no use now. Once he 
could have bought a whole county ; he cannot buy 
a drop of water now. Once men followed him ; now 
he is beset about with the evil men of all ages, and 
he wails out : " Here they are with me. Once I had 
opportunity. Once I had a mother's love. Once the 
Spirit of God came and moved my heart and said, 
4 After all, it is true. After all, you had better be a 
Christian. After all, you had better give your heart 
to God.' And I said, ' No, I will just close it up. I 
won't hear any of it.' " All the wealth of the Indies 
and the gold of Ophir could not buy for him a single 
mercy now, because the end has come. 

And even poor Lazarus, oh, think about it ! Laz- 
arus was God's missionary to that man. Do you 

z 



290 the southern baptist pulpit 

know what that poor fellow would have done if the 
rich man had just opened his gate that day and said : 
" Come in, poor fellow. You can have more than 
the crumbs. You can have a seat at the table. Just 
come in and we will help you. And now bring him 
something to eat." Do you know, if he had gone 
and lingered by his side and bound up his wounds, 
Lazarus would have told him about God, and Lazarus 
would have been there in that house a very electric 
current between that home and God, and the wires 
would have flashed with prayer and the rich man 
need never have been in hell at all. And he remem- 
bered that, and so he wanted the very beggar that he 
had cast off and scorned, to go back to his brethren 
and say to them, "Oh, don't you go where your 
brother has gone ! " It seems to me that the saddest 
thing, when all the sum of our life shall have been 
cast up and the end shall have come — that the sad- 
dest thing of all will be the separation between loved 
ones. At the gate of death the unrepentant goes 
into hell to take up his abode with devils, and the 
penitent goes into the glory world to be with Jesus 
forever. There will be the separation of fathers and 
sons there. There will be the separation of wives 
and husbands. There will be families torn asunder. 

God, may all in this house of every family be 
united in heaven. May every sinner in this house 
to-day flee from the wrath to come, for I tell you, 
dear friends, that it is true, every word of it is true, 
every word. 

Now the last thought in this sermon. Why have 

1 preached it ? Why preach such a sermon ? Why 
talk to men about a subject as harrowing as this? 
Why remove the veil and lift up the covering from 
the seething mouth of hell that we may gaze into it 
for a moment? I will tell you why. Why is it that 
when yellow fever comes it is flashed on the wires 
into a million homes in an hour? Why is it that 



A MAN IN HEIX 291 

when contagion makes its home among us that the 
news passes from lip to lip ? It is done that we may 
escape it. Why is it that men warn each other 
against the blight and deadliness of temporal destruc- 
tion? Why is it? It is to save them. And so I 
have come to-day to preach this sermon, because I 
know — and I realize it more and more as I grow older 
and come nearer to the end of my own life — I know 
that very soon the sums of your lives will have been 
made out forever and for eternity. 

A word to the Christians just here. Why don't 
you talk more to sinners? Why don't you warn 
men ? I tell you there is reality in it all ; that there 
is a real, literal hell ; and that the broad sweep of its 
eternity on the one hand is just as long as heaven on 
the other. 

You say — and that is what this man thought — even 
in hell he thought that if somebody would just rise 
from the dead and go down there and tell those five 
brethren, they would all believe it. That is a great 
fallacy. Do you know that if a man were to die here 
in this house to-day, and stay dead a day, and after 
he had been dead a day should come back to life 
again and stand in this pulpit where I am standing, 
and talk to you and say : " I have been in heaven ; I 
have seen Jesus ; I have heard the angels sing ; I 
have clasped hands with Abraham and Elijah and 
Moses, and men, it is all true ; and I looked over 
that great gulf and I saw into hell, and lost men are 
there, and they are to-day raising their fruitless cries 
to heaven " ; if he should come and stand here, you 
would say the man never was dead, and you would 
not believe him. You would say, u It is all a fraud, 
that fellow was never dead ; he is lying. " I tell 
you, brethren, if men hear not Moses and the proph- 
ets ; if they hear not this book, these burning truths 
of the word of God, they would not hear if the whole 
graveyard should rise from the dead and come and 



292 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PUUPIT 

proclaim the gospel with the cerements of the grave 
around them. If men cannot be convinced by the 
fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, by the mili- 
tant tread of God's army for two thousand years, and 
by the testimony of a million men who, on the bor- 
der line of death, have said, " I see heaven, and I 
hear the angels, and I know that heaven is real," 
nothing would convince them. I never shall forget 
how old Brother Watson died — a man whom some of 
you knew. When the last hour of his life came and 
he had no more sight in his eyes, except as he saw 
into eternity, he called his daughter to him and said, 
" I see Kitty." That was his wife who had gone to 
God. Was it a lie? Was it a lie that the old and 
venerable man of God told when the death-damp 
was on his brow ? Oh, no ! And I remember how 
M. V. Smith died, that consecrated man whom so 
many loved. In the very last moment almost of 
his kingly life, he said, " Safe in my Saviour's arms 
at last." Was it a lie ? Blessed be God, it was true. 
There is salvation to-day and life eternal to-day, and 
there is hope to-day for every sinner. 

One of the saddest things about hell is that there is 
no hope in hell. And men have committed suicide to 
get away from a hopeless world and gone straight to a 
hopeless hell. I point you to-day, dear sinner friend, 
to light and life and hope. I point you to Jesus Christ 
on the cross, the living Saviour. But for his mercy 
you would be in hell to-day. He has been very good 
to you. He has been very kind to you. He has given 
you health and prosperity and he has made you glad 
many a time because life has been so pleasant ; and 
he gave you a Christian home and a Christian mother. 
Through his mercy you have heard the gospel many 
a time, and it is only through his mercy that we are 
here to-day. And in his name I plead with you to- 
day to come and forsake your sins ; come and forsake 
your ^skepticism if you have it. Come and with 



A MAN IN HELL 293 

humble spirit fall at the feet of Jesus and say, u 
Jesus, here I am, an undone sinner with only a few 
years to live. Take me as I am and give me life 
eternal to-day." Is there one to-day in all this audi- 
ence who wants to escape from the wrath to come ? 
Faster than the breath of any cyclone, speedier than 
the flash of any lightning, deadlier than the embrace 
of any anaconda, is coming the last day, the last 
death, the unutterable and eternal death to sinful 
men. With all the power of my heart to-day, let me 
impress the transcendent truth of this text, u In hell 
he lifted up his eyes." And this gleam of hope : 
" God so loved the world that he gave his only begot- 
ten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not 
perish, but have eternal life." Will you take him 
to-day ? Take him as your Saviour. Take him for 
now, for to-morrow, and forever. 



XXVI 

GODHOOD IN CHRIST 

BY J. J. TAYLOR, D. D. 

" But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that 
even the winds and the sea obey him ! " Matt. 8 : 27. 

THE miracle recorded in this connection is men- 
tioned by three evangelists, whose accounts 
differ only in minor details. It was the crowning 
work of a busy day. Jesus had answered objectors, 
uttered and expounded parables, and declared the doc- 
trines of his kingdom ; and, as the evening shadows 
lengthened in the vales, he felt the need of retirement 
and repose, and gave orders to embark and pass over 
to the other side of the sea. On the way he retired 
to the hinder part of the ship, and 

As the vessel o'er the waters crept, 
While the swelling sails they spread, 

The wearied Saviour gently slept, 
With a pillow 'neath his head. 

But soon the lowering sky grew dark 

On Bashan's rocky brow ; 
The storm rushed down upon the bark, 

The waves swept o'er her prow. 

In kind it was a common occurrence. The in- 
tense heat generated in the basin about the lake rari- 
fied the atmosphere, and under favorable conditions 
according to natural law, the colder air from the sur- 
rounding mountains swept down the ravines with a 
violence that lashed the waters into fury, and some- 
294 




J. J. Taylor, D. D. 



J. J. Taylor is of Welsh descent. His great-grandfather 
came to America about 1772, and settled in Henry County, Va. 
He is the son of Rev. D. G. Taylor, and brother of President 
S. F. Taylor, of Stephens College, Columbia, Mo., Rev. J. Lee 
Taylor, Spencer, Va., and the late R. R. Taylor. Was brought 
up on his father's farm in Henry County, Va., and prepared for 
college at the Jacksonville High School, Floyd C. H., and took 
the A. M. degree from Richmond College in 1880. He entered the 
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, September, 1880 ; became 
pastor of the Upper Street Church, Lexington, Ky., in 1881, and 
remained until September, 1887, more than doubling the mem- 
bership. He has been pastor of the St. Francis Street Church, 
Mobile, Ala., since October 1, 1887, during which time some five 
hundred members have been added and efficiency of the church 
greatly increased. He is the author of an " excellent "(Broadus) 
biography of his father, • ' Daniel G. Taylor, a Country 
Preacher," and several sermons in tiact form. 



GODHOOD IN CHRIST 295 

times seemed to shake the solid land. In this case 
the tempest was strangely severe. The word used to 
designate it means an earthquake ; as if the founda- 
tions of the sea were suddenly broken up, and its 
waters heaved aloft. The fishermen disciples, fa- 
miliar with the freaks of the weather, and inured to 
the dangers of the deep, lost their fortitude and almost 
their faith. Alarmed and helpless amid the thicken- 
ing peril they turned to Jesus, and awoke him, saying, 
Master, Master, we perish ! Yielding to their en- 
treaty he calmly arose, and in the language of per- 
sonal appeal as if addressed to sentient beings, he 
spoke to the raging elements and ruled them with 
his word. The psalmist had said : " The Lord on 
high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea 
than the mighty waves of the sea." "O Lord God 
of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee ? or to 
thy faithfulness round about thee ? Thou rulest the 
raging of the sea ; when the waves thereof arise, 
thou stillest them." In the light of these utterances 
the deed possessed a startling significance. It iden- 
tified the man so lately asleep on a pillow as the 
mighty God extolled by the sacred bard. It forced 
upon the astonished spectators some weird conception 
of Godhood in Christ, and evoked the pertinent ques- 
tion, "What manner of man is this, that even the 
winds and sea obey him ?" 

As a disclosure of godhood this miracle is worthy 
of devout study. It is a parable crystallized in deed, 
and its teachings touch the heart of all religion. By 
nature men are worshipers, and by the same nature 
they desire to know the object of their devotions. In 
the earliest historic times Job cried, u Oh, that I knew 
where I might find him, that I might come even to his 
seat ! " Philip prayed, " Lord, show us the Father, and 
it sufficeth us. n The poet sings, 

Where shall I find him, oh, my soul, 
Who yet is everywhere. 



296 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

Men have searched in the heights and in the depths, 
tracing every bream of light into the trackless void ; 
and yet they have a common experience of vague- 
ness in their conceptions of God. He seems like 
an evanescent glory, without form or center or 
local habitation. He is a vast and shadowy some- 
thing, lying beyond the apprehension of the senses 
and eluding the shrewdest search ; and he utters no 
voice and reveals no outlines of his person. The 
whole brotherhood of inspired writers agrees that God 
is not disclosed outwardly. He is a spirit, immortal, 
imponderable, immanent, and transcendent, whom 
no man hath seen or can see, and whom no earthly 
measurement can compass. 

Some of the emptiest things in theological litera- 
ture — and certainly that realm has its share of stu- 
pidity—are found in the documents which undertake 
to declare the divine essence, as for example, that 
Christ is " very God of very God, begotten not made." 
Such utterances display a genius for nonsense. It is 
difficult to form a conception of God, and impossible 
to fill out the lineaments of his being. Parts of his 
ways are shown in his works, but how little a portion 
is heard of him, and the thunder of his power who 
can understand? On this idea the commandment 
says, Thou shalt not make any graven image or 
likeness of anything in the heaven above or the 
earth beneath as an object of worship. Such objects, 
even when idealized and carried up to the highest 
perfection, fall short of the reality and belie the di- 
vine character. A block of wood or stone or metal 
bears no new relation to Jehovah, when it is graven 
by human device and carved into the form of men 
or monsters, crosses or crucifixes. It is simply a part 
of his creation, and it becomes a fetich in proportion 
as men become idolaters. In the realms of supersti- 
tion a cat or a calf, a clam-shell or a cracker, may be 
an object of worship, but it cannot be an embodi- 



GODHOOD IN CHRIST 297 

ment of him whom the heaven of heavens cannot 
contain. 

In the absolute, God is forever the same without 
variableness or shadow of turning ; he reveals himself 
without respect of persons, yet in some sense he is 
different to different men. The sunlight falls alike 
upon all objects; but it appears red or orange, yellow 
or green, according to the media through which it 
passes. In the same way the disclosures of God are 
interpreted according to the individual mind. One 
of the noblest announcements concerning the divine 
character is found in the book of Exodus. Moses stood 
trembling at the beginning of that work which gave 
his name to immortality. He desired such a view of 
Jehovah as would strengthen his heart for the allotted 
task. "And the L,ord descended in the cloud and 
stood with him there . . . ; and the L,ord passed by 
before him and proclaimed, The L,ord, the L,ord God, 
merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant 
in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, 
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that 
will by no means clear the guilty ; visiting the in- 
iquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the 
children's children unto the third and to the fourth 
generation. n Here certainly the milder aspects of 
the divine character predominate ; yet they made but 
little impression on that coarse and callous age. In the 
Old Testament generally God is set forth as a mighty 
man and a man of war, whetting his sword, bending his 
bow and making ready his arrows. He is a God of 
armies, who flashes his fury in the lightnings and 
sounds his resentment in the thunder. He is a God 
of vengeance, whose anger burns into the lowest hell 
and consumes the foundations of the mountains, and 
whose hand is uplifted for the destruction of his ene- 
mies. In the ruder times, when men lived in Sodom 
and were degraded below the brutes which follow 
their natural instincts, when religion degenerated into 



298 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

legalized lust and violence succeeded law, when there 
was no established authority in society and every 
man did what was right in his own eyes, only the 
sterner phases of the divine character were competent 
to stay the course of wickedness and work reform in 
the ways of life. Stubborn iniquity was met with in- 
flexible righteousness. God went forth in the great- 
ness of his strength, red in his apparel as one that 
treadeth in the wine-press, uttering the doom of trans- 
gressors : "I will tread them in mine anger, and 
trample them in my fury ; and their blood shall be 
sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my 
raiment. For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, 
and the year of my redeemed is come." 

In this miracle God is disclosed in power. The 
cleansing of the leper, the restoring of sight to the 
blind, the healing of the centurion's servant and of 
Peter's mother-in-law were amazing displays of 
power. Previously it was never so seen in Israel. But 
in these cases he had the co-operation of sentient 
beings. When he cast out unclean spirits or un- 
stopped deaf ears, he had intelligence as an ally; 
even in raising the dead he hardly spanned a gulf so 
wide as that which separates between man and the 
forces of the physical world. We may not undertake 
to weigh his miracles and determine their relative 
merits ; but I can conceive of no higher display of 
authority than this, that a word should control the 
winds and the sea. By observations extending 
through many years men have judged that certain 
adequate causes may be set in operation to regulate 
the clouds and claim to produce rain at will ; they have 
learned also to pour oil on the troubled waters of the 
sea and abate the fury of the storm ; but no daring 
inventor, no wizard of science, has found a way to 
bridle the forces that rule the winds. Yet a word 
from this man is mightier than the euroclydon. 
Spoken in perfect calmness, it brings a perfect calm. 



GODHOOD IN CHRIST 299 

Beyond the display of supreme power there is also 
a disclosure of beneficent wisdom and divine sym- 
pathy. The storm had power, ruthless power to break 
and terrify and destroy ; power operating blindly, 
pitilessly, inexorably. In such a display the heathen 
saw only the great and awful God. They perceived 
his goings in the whirlwind, and heard his plaints in 
the plash of the waves ; and they crawled in the dust 
before him, and suffered all manner of agony to ap- 
pease his dreaded wrath. But there is power to rule 
the fiercest storm that ever swept the seas, or broke 
the rocks upon the shore. It lurks in no enormous 
engine, and operates through no mighty machine. 
It abides in a will, and is expressed in the voice of a 
man. It is subject to prayer ; and it is exercised in 
compassion for weakness and needless alarm. God in 
Christ disclosed his sympathy as he puts forth his 
power to rescue imperiled men. He is a merciful 
Mediator, touched with a feeling of our infirmities, 
tempted in all points and tender with those who are 
tried. 

The pity of the Lord, 

To those that fear his name, 
Is such as tender parents feel ; 

He knows our feeble frame. 



And there is no man contending against the storms 
of life, and no man bowing his shoulders to the bur- 
dens of poverty or disease, and no man sweating blood 
in an agony of prayer for deliverance, that may not 
come, that may not have the assurance of divine sym- 
pathy in Jesus Christ. 

The prophets of the Old Testament were chiefly 
reformers. They arose to rebuke corruption in gov- 
ernment, hypocrisy in religion, and uncleanness in 
individual life. They uttered protest against the op- 
pressions of power and the cruelties of man to man \ 
and they came with a whip for the horse and a bridle 



300 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

for the ass and a rod for the fool. Nevertheless they 
came with a message of mercy and love and forgive- 
ness for the penitent. It is not John, but David who 
says, " The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to 
everlasting npon them that fear him, and his right- 
eousness unto children's children, to such as keep his 
covenant and to those that remember his command- 
ments to do them." It is not Matthew, but Isaiah 
who calls the wicked to forsake their ways and return 
unto the Lord, and assures them of mercy and pardon, 
abundant and free. It is not Paul, but Jeremiah who 
says, " Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a 
fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night 
for the slain of the daughter of my people." The 
God who slew famous kings, Og, king of Bashan, and 
Sihon, king of the Amorites, is a God of compassion : 
for his mercy endureth forever. But the highest 
reach of might and of mercy is shown in Jesus 
Christ ; and these qualities are blended in the miracle 
on the sea, as Jehovah wills and works according to 
the good pleasure of his will. 

The disclosure of divine power and compassion in 
the plenitude of grace is not conditioned absolutely 
upon shipwreck or upon the hazard of the dearest 
things in life, but somehow it does depend upon con- 
scious need. If from some steadfast cliff, beetling 
above the stroke of the fiercest wave, these men had 
watched the storm, what would they have cared 
whether it raged in fury or sank in repose ? But 
when they were adrift and helpless, spent and despair- 
ing, the Master's majestic words, u Peace, be still," 
and the ensuing calm, marked an epoch in their ex- 
perience. In the man who stood before them as their 
teacher and familiar friend they saw not the full 
measure of divine character, but the outshining of a 
divinity which ruled the forces of nature with a word ; 
and out of their disaster they came into a nobler con- 
ception of God in Christ. 



GODHOOI> IN CHRIST 301 

They that are whole call not a physician ; and they 
that are safe seek not a saviour. It is written : " I 
spake unto thee in thy prosperity, but thou saidst, I 
will not hear." If a man has ridden perpetually on 
the crest of the wave, and has never felt the shock of 
a storm ; if he has never yielded to temptation and 
infirmity, and has never turned aside from the path 
of righteousness, what does he care for the friendship 
of One who rules the storm, and who, tempted in all 
possible points, is moved with a feeling of human in- 
firmity, and brought into sympathy with the helpless 
and the wayward ? But when 

He has been to the funeral of earthly hopes, 

And entombed them one by one ; 
And then alone by the cold hearthstone 

Has wooed the midnight gloom ; 

when he has felt the burden of guilt, and the impos- 
sibility of mastering the forces that are bearing him 
down, no voice is so sweet as that which says, " Peace, 
be still." 

Before such a disclosure men are swept with a sense 
of amazement and awe. Moses, the illustrious cham- 
pion of righteousness, trembled before the burning 
bush, and durst not behold. Later, at Sinai, so terrible 
was the sight that he said, "I exceedingly fear and 
quake." Conscious of the divine presence at Bethel, 
Jacob exclaimed, " How dreadful is this place." 
Measuring himself by human standards, Job gloried 
in his own perfections, and challenged Jehovah to an 
argument, that the mysteries of providence in human 
suffering might be disclosed. But when in the end 
God appeared, Job was utterly abashed, and said, "I 
have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now 
mine eye seeth thee ; wherefore I abhor myself, and 
repent in dust and ashes." In his earlier life Peter 
was not noted for his humility. He rather boasted 
of his excellence as a disciple. But there on the lake 

2 a 



302 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

shore, as Godhood flashed out in the miraculous 
draught of fishes, he- fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, 
" Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." 
And here before the outshining of divine power, the 
men marveled, " What manner of man is this?" 

Many a soul, awakened to the importance of salva- 
tion, has been oppressed with a sense of unworthiness 
and has reflected, " What am I, that God should care 
for me ? I am nothing, and worse than nothing be- 
fore him. My sins have been many and grievous, 
and I have no claim upon his mercy." But what 
sort of a God is it who doles out mercy according to 
merit? Sometimes a weak and witless woman, 
whose husband has stumbled upon a little money 
and bought a house on a fashionable street, under- 
takes to put on airs, and she thinks she cannot afford 
to associate with her old friends in the humbler walks 
of life. Probably she cannot, for she is not secure in 
her new place ; but the true aristocracy have no 
fear of losing caste. The God disclosed in Christ, 
whose soft voice outsounded the roar of the storm, 
can afford to help even me. He cares for sparrows, 
and not one of them falls to the ground unnoticed. 
" Fear ye not, therefore ; ye are of more value than 
many sparrows.' ' This he said to the multitude as 
well as to the disciples, and he demonstrated his 
care by his actions. He allowed publicans and sin- 
ners to draw near unto him, and when his conduct 
was questioned, he said he came not to call the 
righteous, but sinners to repentance. The stream of 
his compassion flowed toward the needy ; and he 
folded back the veil and disclosed more joy in 
heaven over one sinner that repents, than over 
ninety and nine unsinning souls. He awoke from 
needed sleep at the cry of distress, and he exercised 
his power to dispel torturing fear. He showed him- 
self always the helper of the helpless, merciful and 
gracious. 



GODHOOD IN CHRIST 303 

And after all, helpfulness is the supreme office of 
God in Christ; as it is written :•" Himself took our 
infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." Viewed in 
their best estate, as the offspring of piety and health 
and culture, as moral and upright and saintly, men 
are weak and needy. They are disappointed, over- 
thrown, broken upon the wheel, plunged into tor- 
ments, baptized in blood ; and gentle spirits on the 
rack of pain grow faint or fierce, and pray and curse 
by turns. Under the best conditions life is full of 
besetment and agony, and each heart has its own 
burden and its own bitterness. Lower down in the 
scale, where ignorance and squalor and sin prevail, 
the agony augments, and the victims of wretchedness 
struggle on in the failing fight, until at last with 
every aspiration crushed, and 

With not a trace upon the page, 
From desperate youth to loathsome age, 
But of sin and sorrow, wrong and chance, 
And the cruel blight of ignorance, 

they drop down and pass out of sight The march 
of mankind is undertoned with minor chords. Dumb 
tears enough have been shed to make an ocean. And 
in comparison with these things the fiercest storm 
that ever swept down from the heights of Hermon 
becomes feeble and insignificant. But to this host of 
helpless ones, drenched, drooping, and ready to des- 
pair, there is revealed a God of compassion, whose 
voice is omnipotent. He comes not in the bush that 
burns with fire and strikes terror to the stoutest heart, 
nor yet in the majesty which no man can see and 
live ; he speaks not in the tones which once shook 
the earth and also the heavens, and echoed in the 
thunder of the skies. But he comes in Jesus Christ, 
who walks and talks with men, who sleeps on a pil- 
low as a man, who awakes as a man, and with the 
voice of a man speaks as God the potent words 



304 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PTJXPIT 

which rule the storm. The high hills are a refuge 
for the wild goats, and the rocks for the conies. 

God is the refuge of his saints, 

When storms of sharp distress invade ; 

Ere we can offer our complaints, 
Behold him present with his aid. 

The divine administration on earth is based upon 
the ignorance, the helplessness, the guilt of men. 
They are the workmanship of divine hands, the ob- 
jects of divine regard. Christ has been anointed of 
the Spirit to heal broken hearts, to bring deliverance 
to captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to 
set at liberty them that are bruised of the adversary, 
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. The 
same yesterday, to-day, and forever, he still says, 
" Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest." 



W. P. Walker was born in Jackson County, Va., May 14, 
1834. His father dying when he was eleven years old, he 
grew to manhood without an education. He was married to 
Miss Mary Jane McClung, March 9, 1855 ; was baptized by 
Rev. Allen Wood, pastor of the Mount Pleasant Church in 
Nicholas County, October 30, 1857 ; was licensed to preach 
March 13, 1858, and «vas ordained January 21, i860. He was 
a student at Alleghany College in the session of 1859 and i860, 
and of the following session till it was closed by the war. From 
1862 to 1866, he preached in the counties of Nicholas, Fayette, 
and Greenbrier. In 1866 he took charge of the church at 
Williamstown, on the Ohio River. He spent the year 1876 as 
agent of Sheton College. In May, 1877, he took charge of 
mission work in Huntington, where he is still pastor of the 
church which grew out of his labors. The degree of d. d. was 
conferred upon him by the State University in 1889. He is 
highly esteemed and has been frequently honored by his 
brethren in West Virginia. 




W. P. Walker, D. D. 



XXVII 

ABANDONED OF THE LORD 

BY W. P. WALKER, D. D. 

" Ephraim is joined to idols : let him alone." Hosea 4:17. 

MAN is the crowning work of creation. He is 
the last and noblest work of God. He alone 
is endowed with intelligence. He can think, reason, 
and feel. God placed him in authority. He is to 
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over every 
living thing that creeps upon the earth. And just in 
proportion to his exalted position are his privileges 
and responsibilities. He is made the arbiter of his 
own destiny, Good and evil, life and death, are set 
before him, with the power of choice. 

2. But he is not left to himself in this matter. His 
Maker wishes him well and follows him up with invi- 
tations and incentives to choose that which is good. 
He communicates with him, revealing his will and 
offering to him his blessing, guaranteeing support 
in time of need, and protection in time of danger. 
He even seeks his companionship. In the beginning 
God walked with man in the garden of Eden. 

But all this may be lost. Man may resent the 
approaches of his Maker until he, offended, may 
turn away and leave him to himself. Ephraim was 
favored with every opportunity of blessing. He was 
set before his brother by the blessing of his grand- 
father, Jacob, and subsequently his tribe gained prom- 
inence in Israel by the favor of God. But after cen- 

3°5 



306 the southern baptist pulpit 

turies of blessing and ages of opportunities, we hear 
his sad doom, in the words of the text, " Ephraim 
is joined to idols : let him alone." How sadly these 
words fall on our ears. May the Lord help us to 
learn profitable lessons from them. For this purpose 
they are written in the book of God. 

I. GOD IS SEEKING MAN'S BEST INTERESTS. 

Man has never been left wholly to himself. His 
Maker has followed him even into the depths, of sin, 
commending his love toward him, that while he was 
yet a sinner Christ died for him. In every age 
of the world, in one way or another, he has kept 
open a way of communication with our race. Some- 
times these communications were intermittent, but 
they did not wholly cease. To the glory of his name 
be it said, as the ages passed, they became more fre- 
quent and more distinct, until now we are blessed 
with the abiding revelation of the " glorious gospel 
of the blessed God." But what means all this? 
What good is intended to man ? 

i. It is to save him. The salvation of man was 
not an after-thought, but it was an after-act. God, 
foreseeing the entrance of sin into the world and the 
consequent fall of man, prepared beforehand the plan 
of salvation, and in the fullness of time all the details 
of that plan were wrought out. But this scheme of 
redemption must deal with men as individuals, and 
must be addressed to each one through the intellect 
and the affections, leaving the matter of choice with 
us. There is no coercion in matters of religion. 
God's revelation to man is sufficient to convince his 
judgment, conquer his will, and win his love. These 
obtained, his salvation is secured. This salvation 
implies the redemption of the whole man, body, soul, 
and spirit. It saves from sin, from the love of sin, 
from the stain of sin, from the consequences of sin, 
and from mortality. Moreover, it changes the indi- 



ABANDONED OF THE LORD 307 

vidual from an enemy to a friend, from an alien to a 
citizen, and to fellowship with God. God hath set 
apart him that is godly for himself. Blessed fellow- 
ship — blessed results of God's salvation. 

2. It is to make man better. It is true that God is 
glorified in the salvation of men and for his name's 
sake, he saves them. But it is* true also, that his 
love for man and desire for his welfare runs through 
the whole scheme of redemption. God so loved the 
world that he gave his Son to save it. The salvation 
of man necessarily involves the betterment of his 
condition. Man was made pure, in the likeness of 
his Maker. This likeness he lost by sin, and he be- 
came evil. Hence, salvation means an utter change 
in his mind and heart and life. For this purpose, 
God would put his law in his mind, his grace in 
his heart, and his spirit in his life. An opposer 
has sneeringly said : " The religion of the ortho- 
dox is absurd, in that it takes the miserable sinner 
from a life of vice and shame, and gives him an im- 
mediate pass to heaven. " This is not a correct state- 
ment of the case. It is true that Christ came to save 
sinners, but he did not come to save them in their 
sins, but to save them from their sins. The sinner is 
invited to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus, 
with the offer of regeneration and a new nature. 
Man must have this change of his nature before he 
can be saved ; indeed this is his salvation. Thus, in 
the salvation of man, he is made better as well as 
happier. 

3. It is that he may do good to others. God said to 
Abraham, I will bless thee, and thou shalt be a bless- 
ing. Paul said, the grace of God which was be- 
stowed upon me was not in vain. The reason given 
is, that he labored abundantly. Just as soon as a man 
is brought over to the Lord's side, he is taken into 
partnership. u For we are laborers together with 
God." Converted men are made messengers of God, 



308 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

with the word of life to their fellow-men. They are 
Christ's witness to the saving power of the gospel. 

So it is, that God follows men up with his word, 
with his providence, with his Spirit, and with the per- 
sistent warnings and pleadings of his people, not 
willing that any should perish, but that all should 
come to repentance. 

After all this, there are still those who, like Eph- 
raim, not knowing that the goodness of God leads to 
repentance, by hardness and impenitence of heart, 
treasure up to themselves wrath against the day of 
wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of 
God. Holy Spirit, forbid that any of us should do 
so ! But if we would escape, we must cease our oppo- 
sition and yield to God, lest he say, He is joined to his 
sins ; let him alone. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of 
God, lest he leave you to your fate. 

But we want to inquire further as to how God urges 
his claims upon men. What means does he use? 
Where and how is he speaking to us ? 

i. In the Bible, The Bible is God's plainest and 
fullest revelation to man. In it he reveals to us his 
will, our true condition, our destiny, and everything 
essential for improving our condition. From the be- 
ginning to the end it abounds in warning, in instruc- 
tion, in invitations, and in promises. It is so plain 
that wayfaring men, though fools, need not err 
therein. It is wonderful how God has followed man 
with the Bible. It was given in olden time by holy 
men as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. And 
notwithstanding it has been hated and resisted in 
every age, and every device that wicked men and 
demons could invent has been used for its destruction, 
yet it is in the world, a standing protest against the 
sins of men and a perpetual offer of mercy and par- 
don to any who will accept it. In these later days it 
is being multiplied and cheapened until it can be 
had in any home where it is wanted. Through it 



ABANDONED OF THE LORD 309 

the world's Redeemer knocks at the door of every 
heart asking admittance. After the gift of his Son 
and the Holy Spirit, it is God's best gift to man. It 
perpetuates truth and light in the world. By the 
truth we may be made free, and by the light we may 
walk in the ways of God. 

2. But he speaks to men by his living ministry. It 
has ever been so ; the patriarchs were made ministers 
of God to their families. Thus a whole tribe was se- 
lected in Israel and made to minister in holy things. 
And still in this latest and best of the dispensations, 
God has selected whom he would then and there, and 
put them into this work. He put within them the 
power of an endless life, put in their hearts a warm 
love for truth and righteousness and an unconquer- 
able zeal for the salvation of men, impelled by which 
they go everywhere preaching the word. Thus are 
these ceaseless agencies always urging men to be 
saved. 

3. God speaks to men in providence. God made all 
things and he has not resigned his right to control 
them, but is ordering them in the interest of man- 
kind, not to supply temporal wants only, but to 
win men's hearts and save their souls as well. In 
the effort to win the Jews, Jesus did not leave 
them with his word alone, but appealed also to his 
works. He had greater witness than that of John, 
even the works which he did. It was his works that 
left the Jews without excuse. Paul declared that 
God left us not without witness, in that he did good 
and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, 
filling our hearts with food and gladness. Every re- 
turning season, with its fruit and food supply, is 
God's testimony to his goodness to man and his invi- 
tation to submission and trust. 

4. By the Holy Spirit. All of the agencies, power- 
ful though they be, would not avail without the 
agency of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has always 



3IO THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

been interested in men. Patriarchs and prophets 
were subjects of his care and guidance. His restrain- 
ing influence was felt by the wicked in the days of 
Noah, and his helpful presence was with the tribes of 
Israel until he was grieved away by their wickedness. 
But we live in the special dispensation of the Spirit. 
God, in speaking of the reign of Messiah by the prophet 
Ezekiel, says : A new heart also will I give you, 
and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take 
away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will 
give you a heart of flesh." This is one of the •< ex- 
ceeding great and precious promises " by which we 
may be partakers of the divine nature. We are help- 
less in our fallen nature, and all of the means used 
to win us from sin will fail without the Spirit ; but 
with his aid we can turn to God. This blessed Spirit 
is ever present to use the word of God, his provi- 
dence, and his ministry, making them, each of them 
or all of them, his power unto salvation. 

So then we are left without excuse. Every pro- 
vision has been made. The plan of salvation is 
" finished," the way of life has been made plain, the 
dangers of sin have been pointed out, and the heart 
has been pressed by the claims of God's infinite 
love and the invitations of the Spirit. Who can, 
who will dare continue to resist all of these ? God 
calls upon the heavens to witness man's irrational 
course. u Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth : I 
have nourished and brought up children, and they 
have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his 
owner, and the ass his master's crib : but Israel doth 
not know, my people doth not consider. Ah, sinful 
nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil- 
doers, children that are corrupters : they have for- 
saken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of 
Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward." 

Such are the provoking circumstances under which 
divine love is forced to withdraw these saving influ- 



ABANDONED OF THE LORD 311 

ences and leave man to himself. Wretched condi- 
tion, who can endure it? Who must endure it? 
" He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, 
shall be destroyed, and that without remedy." I^et 
Ephraim alone ; he is joined to his idols. 

III. Let him alone — what does it mean ? The dan- 
ger to us is, that we shall not fully understand this, 
nor appreciate what of it we may understand. 

1. Man left to himself. He is left with the accumu- 
lated guilt of a lifetime of sin, helpless in his depraved 
nature, loving darkness rather than light, because his 
deeds are evil. Men may not realize this while in 
life and engaged in sin, but it is a reality, and the 
time will come when it will be felt. There is noth- 
ing more dreadful than for a man to be left to him- 
self. He does not need to be punished. All the nec- 
essary conditions of penalty for his sins are in him. 
Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap. 
The elements of destruction are in him. He that 
soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. 
Utterly helpless and hopeless he is. 

2. In the hands of Satan. There is no middle 
ground. Every man is either in the hands of God 
or he is in the hands of Satan. The Jews claimed 
to be the seed of Abraham, but instead they were not 
doing the deeds of Abraham, but they had forsaken 
his teaching ; and so they were of their father the 
devil, and the deeds of their father they would per- 
sist in doing. 

In this slavery the mind is blinded, that truth can- 
not be seen. The affections are perverted that the 
truth is hated, and the will is paralyzed that it cannot 
be obeyed. The only relief is in God. u If the Son 
therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." 
But to be abandoned of the Lord is to remain the 
victim of Satan— led or driven* to deeds of wicked- 
ness while in this world and to become the victim of 
fiendish hate in the world to come. This condition 



312 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

of things is not only taught in the Bible, but it is 
verified in the scenes of every-day life. Note the deeds 
of men and women as they occur day by day, and 
you will see signs of a spirit that is worse than human 
— it is devilish. It is unnatural, inhuman ; and there 
is no accounting for it except upon the supposition 
that they are abandoned of the law and have become 
captives to Satan. Crimes are committed which 
promise no present or prospective good to the perpe- 
trator ; there is absolutely nothing to actuate but the 
love of sin. God forbid that any who hears this warn- 
ing should persist in the downward way till too late. 

i. There is a sin unto death. " If we sin willfully 
after that we have received a knowledge of the truth, 
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin, but a cer- 
tain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indigna- 
tion which shall devour the adversaries.'' Blasphemy 
against the Holy Spirit has no forgiveness neither in 
this world nor in the world to come. We may not 
be able to explain these statements to those who are 
disposed to quibble, but the facts remain. They 
stand out as signals of danger, and my business and 
yours is to heed them and avoid the wreck. They 
are not put iu the Bible to amuse the curious, but 
they are there for the warning and safety of all who 
honestly seek for life and immortality. 

2. How may we know the approach of danger? 
When the instructions, warnings, and invitations of 
God have come to us and have been unheeded, we may 
know that danger is nigh. Every opportunity given 
leaves one less to be improved. Therefore, we ought 
to give the more earnest heed to the things which we 
have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. 
When all of the means appointed of God have 
been employed, the appeals of his messengers, the 
lessons of his providence, and the warnings of the 
Holy Spirit, when these have been multiplied and 
unheeded, know that the end is nigh. 



ABANDONED OF THE LORD 313 

3. A word to all. Unsaved friend, the door of 
mercy is still open, the invitations of grace are still 
extended. You may, perhaps, feel it in your heart. 
If so, yield, accept, and be saved. This may be the 
last opportunity. O Holy Spirit, restrain reluctant 
hearts. 

Brethren and sisters, you know something of what 
you have escaped through grace, and of what you have 
obtained through Christ. Now you are the Lord's, 
and he will never forsake you. He will never say of 
you, " Let him alone" But his infinite store of bless- 
ing and glory is open to you, and it shall not be shut 
at all, by day or by night, blessed be his holy name. 

And so, through all the coming days, 

Thy love shall fail me never, 
And be the theme of all my praise 

Within thy house forever. 



2b 



XXVIII 

THE SUBLIMITY OF THE UKE OF FAITH 

BY REV. DAVID M. RAMSEY 

" For lie endured, as seeing him who is invisible.' ' Heb. 1 1 : 27. 

THIS simple statement in the text is the key to a 
great career. It helps us to understand the life 
of a very unusual man. Taken all the way around, 
Moses has not a superior among the sons of men. 
Consider what he gave up and what he endured. He 
was truly an accomplished man. We read that he 
was versed in all the Egyptian learning. You may 
think that this statement means little, but upon re- 
flection you will change your opinion. The discovery 
of the Rosetta stone, and the success of a great scholar 
in deciphering it, aided by the infinite patience of 
his co-laborers, enable us to know something defi- 
nite of the superior civilization which belonged to this 
ancient land of the Nile in that far-off day when 
Moses lived. 

Moses could write. I mean that he understood the 
art of penmanship. This was no mean accomplish- 
ment even for a great man in his day. Homer, the 
father of Greek literature, lived two hundred years per- 
haps after Moses, and yet he could not write his name. 
Not until three hundred years after the death of 
the blind bard of Greece were his poems reduced to 
writing, being preserved from oblivion by the trav- 
eling singers, an order corresponding to the Minne- 
singers of Europe, those nightingales of the Middle 
Ages, who went about singing of love, joy, and 
sorrow. The Egyptians were well versed also in 
3H 










Rev. D. M. Ramsey. 



David M. Ramsey is a native of Greenville County, S. C, 
an alumnus of Richmond College, Richmond, Va., and a 
full graduate of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. 
During his last year at the seminary, and for a few months 
after finishing his course, he was the pastor of Glens Creek and 
Hillsboro churches in Woodford County, Kentucky. On Feb- 
ruary 9, 1888, Mr. Ramsey was married to Miss Mary R. Wood- 
folk, of Versailles, Ky. In May, of the same year, he became 
the pastor of the Tuscaloosa Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa, Ala., 
which he resigned in the summer of 1892 to accept a call to the 
Citadel Square Baptist Church of Charleston, S. C, entering 
upon his duties Oct. 1, 1892, where he still labors. Mr. Ramsey 
is a genial and cultured gentleman, an effective speaker, and a 
successful pastor. 



THE SUBLIMITY OF THE UFE OF FAITH 315 

mathematics. The annual overflow of the Nile 
making it necessary to re-survey their lands fre- 
quently, occasioned practical use for this kind of 
knowledge. The pyramid of Gheops was a thou- 
sand years old in Moses' day and is still standing. 
Likewise the Egyptians were familiar with the 
science of medicine. If you have treated yourself 
to the reading of Mr. George Ebers' beautiful and 
instructive story, " Uarda," you have been impressed 
with the skill of their medical men. In this early 
day they had learned the practice of dentistry. Re- 
cently a tooth has been found in the mouth of a 
mummy that was well plugged and in a good 
state of preservation. Our boasted civilization is a 
stranger to their marvelous skill in the art of em- 
balming the dead. They also knew something of 
chemistry and mineralogy for they worked their mines 
successfully. As for astronomy, our scholars are still 
quoting those of the Nile as authority. 

Now, remember that a young man versed in this 
knowledge, and what is more, with a keen and re- 
fined taste to enjoy it all, with a fondness for such 
charmingly congenial society and with high social 
position, turned his back on all. of it. He perhaps 
threw away a crown that he might be a blessing to 
his fellow-men and blood kindred who were suffering 
serfs in this proud land. Contrast, I pray you, the 
brilliance of that career which might have been, with 
the hardship which he actually endured, and you 
understand in some measure what the record means 
which says that he chose rather to suffer affliction 
with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures 
of sin for a season. 

With this splendid career of Moses before us I wish 
to discuss the life of faith and try to get you to see 
its sublimity. 

I. Consider first the nature of the life of faith. 

1. It is an unselfish life. Unless the forces are 



316 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

strongly counteracted, the natural tendency is for 
us to become intensely selfish in this world. The 
struggle for existence, in this grinding life, where 
all business is conducted on the quite question- 
able principle of the semi-savage law of competi- 
tion, has the effect of paralyzing our sympathy and 
stanching the flow of the milk of human kindness. 
If you do not look above and beyond your daily 
work you will surely and speedily become coldly 
selfish. The man who cares nothing for the eagle 
sailing in God's deep blue heavens but thinks only of 
the eagle on the dollar he is grasping, will have 
no high and holy impulses. The woman who sees 
only the diamond flashing which decorates the bosom 
of the devotee of fashion in the gay and festive hall, 
and is blind to the diamond tears sparkling in the eyes 
of hungry orphans, will soon and surely shut from her 
heart all love for God and all sympathy for her fel- 
low-beings. There is nothing that weans our hearts 
away from sordid selfishness like the life of faith. 

Faith made a man of Moses. When he was forty 
years old, having arrived at the years of manhood, he 
walked abroad in the land of Egypt. He heard the 
groans of his suffering brothers, while the taskmaster's 
whip was falling heavily on the backs of Abraham's 
children who were attempting the impossible task 
of making brick without straw. His blood tingled 
with the flush of righteous indignation. He arose to 
deliver the children of promise. But at present he is 
doomed to disappointment. Too impulsive by half he 
slays the offending Egyptian and tries to conceal the 
body in the sand. The next day he begins his work 
for his people again when two of his brethren are hav- 
ing a difficulty. He learns that they know his awful 
secret. He must fly for safety. What the slave knows 
to-day the taskmaster will know to-morrow, and the 
authorities the following day. The truth was the 
people were not ready to be delivered. They misun- 



THE SUBLIMITY OF THE LIKE OF FAITH 317 

derstood Moses' good intentions. Stephen said in 
his speech that Moses supposed that they would have 
understood that God by his hand would deliver them. 
But it took forty years more to prepare the people, 
and that period of patient waiting in exile in the 
wilderness was not lost on Moses. You may re- 
member Goethe's words : " Talent develops itself in 
solitude; character in the stream of life." 

How will you explain such a life as that which 
Moses lived ? It must be very puzzling to the men 
of the world. Is it fanaticism ? Some have called 
Paul a fanatic, but I am not aware that any one has 
made this charge against conservative Moses. He is 
not a crank. A crank is one who does not regulate 
his acts by any well-defined principle, but is erratic 
and chaotic in his conduct. Men of the world, if you 
had seen Dr. Judson in Burma, toiling for weary 
years without converts, you might have thought him 
a fanatic. If you had seen him toiling on after he 
had laid Ann Hasseltine, the faithful wife, under the 
Hopia tree, near the murmuring sea ; toiling on after 
Boardman had fallen ; toiling on when the brethren 
in America had become despondent and were saying 
that there was no use trying any longer to save 
Burma, and had heard him say with Pauline faith : 
"Wait twenty years, brethren, and you shall hear 
from Burma again;" would you not have exclaimed, 
No fanatic this, no crank here, but a hero of faith in 
the Son of God ? 

Many years ago, now, there was born in that South 
Carolina city which bathes her feet in the sea, a 
young man of excellent and wealthy parentage. The 
young man could have been a princely merchant. 
Looking about him he saw a crying need, and said 
that if God spared his life he would give to a great 
denomination a seminary wherein to educate its sons 
for the ministry. To this end he toiled and prayed, 
but when his hopes and plans were about to ripen 



318 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

into blessed fruition the country was scourged and 
devastated. The smoke and dust of battle having 
cleared away, he took time only to wipe his eyes to 
look on the ruin that had been wrought, and went 
to work again. It is a story full of pathos and hero- 
ism, but never mind about the details. When that 
shattered man lay down to rest on the sunny slopes 
of France, no man said that his life had been a failure. 
The other day while riding on a street car in the city 
of Louisville, a stranger asked, i i What buildings are 
these? " as he pointed to the proudest structures in 
that beautiful city on the Ohio. I hardly heard the 
answer. I was thinking of Jas. P. Boyce and his 
heroic struggles. It is fitting that in Louisville's city 
of the dead should stand to his memory a plain gran- 
nite shaft bearing this simple inscription : " In thee, 
O Lord, do I put my trust." Some such man as this 
was Moses. These three, Moses, Judson, Boyce, be- 
came synonyms of unselfishness by faith in God. 

2. Again, the life of faith is unworldly. I am not 
now using the word unworldly in any technical or 
theological sense. It is used as an artist might use it. 
By unworldliness I mean freedom from entanglement 
with the visible world of sense. 

How often have we felt some demand set up by the 
soul for freedom from the binding, galling world of 
contact ! What freedom and joyous release of the 
soul have come to us sometimes when gazing out at 
the stars in boundless space ! At such hours we have 
felt immortality surging in our breast. So we have 
felt while looking at the broad expanse of the sea. 

Break, break, break, 
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea ! 
And I would that my tongue could utter 
The thoughts that arise in me. 

Those who are gifted and well versed in higher 
mathematics, a science which contains truths inde- 



THK SUBLIMITY OF THE LIFE OF FAITH 319 

pendent of time and space, things which have no 
connection with weight and quality, contemplating 
eternal principles and laws, have become entranced 
with rapturous delight with the sense of relief from 
the bondage of this material world. This is what 
I call the rapture of unworldliness. 

This is the great mission of music. A friend of 
mine who is a skilled performer on the violin and is 
blessed with an aesthetic soul, being approached by a 
young coxcomb and asked what he would charge to 
play for a u german," replied with calm indignation : 
" Sir, I have never yet allowed my music to be tram- 
pled under foot." Music, that seraphic mystery, was 
never designed to be an incentive to sensible men 
and women to make a whirligig of their bodies. 
Music was made for the soul. You remember that a 
great scientist said that he had no time to make 
money. That statement is almost incredible to this 
utilitarian age, but it is the truest unworldliness. 

Brethren, have you observed the signs of the times ? 
This is not a spiritual age in which we live. It is not 
an age of great poets. The work of the seer is below 
par. There is a widespread materialism abroad that 
is positively alarming. It threatens to turn Christian 
progress back toward paganism. There has been an 
effort to introduce into this country the barbarous 
Spanish bull fight. The greatest hero among us, it 
would seem, is a " slugger. " The most popular form 
of philosophy is materialistic evolution. In some 
quarters there has been a great effort made to ignore 
the Christian Sunday. All this means something, and 
it is not wise to try to blink the fact. Men's morals 
are much in accord with their thinking. History 
shows that life follows doctrine as night tracks the 
day. This gross worldliness is liable to become de- 
structive of morality. Seed sown in this generation 
will ripen in the next. The influence of Lucretius' 
philosophy in Rome on the morals of the people 



320 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

may be seen to-day in the frescoing on the walls of 
the exhumed buildings of Pompeii. France wrote 
over her cemetery gates, " Death is an eternal sleep!" 
and soon her streets were flowing with blood. The 
sovereign remedy for these evils of worldliness is the 
life of faith such as Christ offers. 

II. Turn now to see the reasons for choosing the 
life of faith. 

i. The principle of faith adds a new sense to the 
soul. It gives the power of seeing the unseen. It is 
plainly stated that the Christian walks by faith and 
not by sight. Faith is the substance of things hoped 
for, the evidence of things not seen. This seeing the 
invisible is a paradox ; worse still, if there. is nothing 
but this material world, the statement is sheer non- 
sense. Believing in the invisible may seem to be 
credulity, but it is good sense and sound reason. We 
believe in the existence of many things which we 
have not seen. The invention of the microscope 
has opened up a new world as large as that one 
Columbus discovered. We now talk of our neigh- 
bors' animalculse and microbes with great familiar- 
ity, which reside in a thimbleful of ditch water; but 
did you ever see a microbe ? You never will with 
your natural eye ; still you believe that it exists. 
You act in accordance with this belief. Yet when 
asked to believe in the supernatural and spiritual 
world you reply that you are an agnostic, and that 
by the very laws of your mind you cannot believe in 
what cannot be demonstrated. You make yourself 
ridiculous, according to my thinking, when you laugh 
at the simple faith of my sister and then readily ac- 
cept so much else that you do not know. u But, n 
you reply, " scientific men who have fitted them- 
selves for it have taken the appropriate instruments 
and have seen all these objects in this microscopic 
world." "Yes," I reply, " and spiritual men fitted 
for seeing have taken this instrument, the word of 



THE SUBLIMITY OF THE LIFE OF FAITH 32 1 

God, and have looked straight through it into the 
spiritual world and seen such things as they have 
not the power to fully relate." Consciousness is as 
genuine and as reliable a source of information as 
sense-perception. I believe the philosophers have at 
last about agreed to that, and whether they have or 
not I know that it is so. What I have felt I know. 
When old Thomas Cranmer was being led to the 
stake, to die for his faith, some one asked him to re- 
peat a passage of Scripture upon which he reposed 
his faith in Jesus Christ. The old man's memory 
proving treacherous at the moment he could not do 
so. "What," said the other, "dying for your re- 
ligion, and still you cannot give me one passage 
which comforts you in such an hour!" u Yes, n 
replied the martyr, " dying for it, but though my 
memory fails me, I know that Jesus Christ is the Sou 
of God and the Saviour of my soul." " How do you 
know it?" he was asked. Tremblingly laying his 
hand on his breast he replied, U I feel it here, sir." 
2. Again, the choosing of the life of faith is urged 
because it gives steadiness of nerve and confidence 
amid earth's hardships. Moses chose to suffer with 
the people of God, and we read that he endured. 
You know the rest. How well he endured is a mat- 
ter of imperishable history. The cheerful fortitude 
of the Christian has ever been a source of surprise to 
the uninitiated. He stands serene in the wildest storm 
of trial. The moral sublimity of his conduct in ad- 
versity is not due to pagan stoicism but is normal, 
cheerful, and healthful. Poor and oppressed, he talks 
calmly of some unseen possession to which he will 
fall heir not many days hence, when his right to 
hold a wingless fortune shall be forevermore un- 
questioned. Homeless, he possesses a home in a city 
that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is 
God. Afflicted sorely, he exclaims: Though he slay 
me, yet will I trust him. Bereaved, he meekly says: 



322 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

The Iyord gave and the Lord hath taken away, blessed 
be the name of the Lord. Moses endured as seeing 
him who is invisible and thousands have done the 
same and others will until the ransomed of God shall 
be gathered to mansions in the skies. 

Yes, brethren, we have a noble heritage in our 
Christian biographies. I am all admiration for the 
heroes of the Cross and I am persuaded that we do 
not make enough of these. We might learn a lesson 
from secular orators and writers, if we prefer to take 
them as examples rather than to imitate the author 
of the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. All the way 
along through our history we can find scores of whom 
the world was not worthy. 

When Charles Cotesworth Pinckney said to Talley- 
rand at the Court of France, on refusing to promise 
money to settle a difficulty between this country and 
France : " War be it then ! Millions for defense, sir, 
but not one cent for tribute," he made a noble speech 
for which he has been sufficiently praised ; but a 
nobler one far was that made by a Baptist preacher 
who, having been imprisoned for preaching and being 
offered his freedom if he would promise to desist from 
preaching, exclaimed : " I will lie here in this dun- 
geon till the moss grows over my eyes before I will 
make such a promise!" 

3. And too, when the Christian comes to die it is 
in the fullness of the power of this sustaining faith. 
Paul's immortal words as he stood in the shadow of 
death, come to your mind. The hysterical fickleness 
of the dying sinner is not characteristic of the Chris- 
tian. Ofttimes Christians have passed away with rap- 
turous joy. Have you considered the departure of 
our brother Stephen? It was a thrilling scene. He 
saw the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing 
at the right hand of the Father. While praying for 
his enemies in almost the very words of his dying 
Lord, amid an avalanche of stones, he fell asleep. 






THE SUBLIMITY OF THE LIFE OF FAITH 323 

Ah, brethren, I know that this invisible One is a 
reality in this present world and that he has a power 
that may be onrs. The time is and will ever be when 
the support of this invisible arm is needed — in life, 
in death, at the bar of God. Oh, that the sons of 
men would call upon him while he is near and seek 
him while he may be found ! 



XXIX 

THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD 1 

BY J. P. GREENE, D. D., LL. D. 

" God is faithful." I Cor. I : 9. 

GOD is true. His word of promise is sure. In all 
his relations to his people he is faithful. No 
one ever trusted him in vain. 

We find this doctrine everywhere in his word. He 
has revealed himself as a faithful God, because faith- 
fulness is an essential part of his character, and his 
people must know that he is faithful in order that 
they may trust him. He is not like the gods of the 
heathen, capricious and untrustworthy, but is the 
same yesterday and to-day and forever. "It is im- 
possible for God to lie." 

While we acccept this doctrine as most reasonable 
and true, we do not always realize that it is true for 
us. He is our God. We are depending on him for 
daily grace. He has made many exceeding' great and 
precious promises to us. Will he do for us all that he 
has promised in his word? Can we, in our daily 
trials, lean with sweet assurance on his word and 
know that it is as firm as the everlasting hills? A 
theory is good, but practical knowledge is better. 

It is not always easy to believe that God is faithful. 
Sometimes we are inclined to charge him with folly. 
Our faith is sorely tried ; our eyes are bedimmed with 
tears, and we cannot see our L,ord ; our ears are dis- 

1 Preached in Washington, D. C, during the Jubilee Session of the 
Southern Baptist Convention. 

324 







J. P. Greene, D D., LL. D. 



John Priest Greene was barn in Scotland County, Mo., in 
1849. He was educated in private schools, Memphis (Mo.) 
Academy, La Grange College, Southern Baptist Theological 
Seminary, and Leipzig University, Germany. Was pastor of the 
East Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky., for four years, and of the 
Third Baptist Church, St. Louis, Mo., for ten years; became 
President of William Jewel College in June, 1892. In 1895 he 
received the degree of ll. d. from Wake Forest College, having 
already been honored with the doctorate in theology. He is a 
man of broad scholarship, and is held in high esteem by his 
brethren. 



THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD 325 

tracted with the noises of the world, and we cannot 
hear his word. He has spoken to us. He is not far 
from us. Yes, yes ; but we are confused ; we stag- 
ger ; we fall. This is not what we expected. We 
are sorely disappointed. How can we harmonize this 
with the word of promise? Bitter disappointments 
for the time obscure the faithfulness of God. 

But we must believe that he is true. Our very 
souls depend on his faithfulness. What shall we do 
if he fail us? To whom shall we go? In whom 
shall we trust ? He has the words of eternal life. If 
he is unfaithful, then there is no God. He that 
comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is 
the rewarder of those that diligently seek him. We 
may not be able to reconcile our circumstances with 
his promises, but we cannot, on this account, believe 
that he is unfaithful. We will wait for more light. 
In his own good time he will show us that he has not 
deceived us nor forsaken us. He knows that our 
faith is based on his faithfulness, and he will not dis- 
appoint us. It may seem that he has forsaken us for 
a small moment, but he will soon gather us with ever- 
lasting mercies. Clouds obscure his face — vapors 
that his breath will drive away. But if mountains 
should rise between him and us, even these mighty 
barriers shall vanish before his almighty word. His 
people shall all know that he is a faithful God, keeping 
his word unto a thousand generations. 

Let me point out to you several ways in which God 
has shown his faithfulness. It is necessary that you 
should know that " He is faithful that promised." 
He has given the world a record of his faithfulness. 

The unwritten word of God, nature, is a sure testi- 
mony. "The heavens declare the glory of God" — 
and also declare his faithfulness. It is night now. 
The sun has gone down, and darkness is over the 
earth. But the morning will come and drive the 
darkness away. How sure is the rising of the sun ? 

2c 



326 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PUI.PIT 

You have already planned your work for to-morrow. 
You will lie down to-night in perfect confidence of 
the coming day. May not God forget to send the 
sun? You can trust him for the morrow, u O ye of 
little faith " ! why can you not trust him for spiritual 
light? It is springtime now. Was it delayed a lit- 
tle ? Were you afraid that winter would never loose 
his grasp on the earth ? God did not forget to send 
us the seed-time. Men are now turning over the soil, 
and committing the seed to it in faith. They believe 
that nature will do her work, and confidently expect 
to reap a harvest. The seed will not fail, but the germ 
of life will spring up and grow and bear grain of its 
own kind. God giveth it a body even as it pleased 
him, and to each seed a body of its own. He has ex- 
pressed his faithfulness in the laws of nature. Men 
sow their seed in faith and hope, and thus bear wit- 
ness to his faithfulness. But shame on them ! they do 
not look up to the faithful God that made these uner- 
ring laws of nature. Read his record aright, and you 
will not fail to see that he has given every creature 
good reason for trusting his word. 

There is another record, the written word. The 
witness of nature is strong and convincing to those 
who will receive it. But wicked men have ever per- 
sisted in excluding God from his world. They will 
not read his unwritten and inarticulate word. So he 
added his spoken word, and then wrote it down, that 
all might be without excuse. Here it is, the word of 
the Lord which endures forever. He began thou- 
sands of years ago to make this record, and added to 
it from generation to generation. It is a solemn 
thing to make promises, especially to those that 
will and must depend on them. It is more solemn to 
make promises that will go down from generation to 
generation. But how very solemn to write down the 
promises in plain words. Men not only read them, 
but also look for their fulfillment. God promised this. 



THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD 327 

Has he done it? Has he kept his word? Times 
change. Customs change. Nations come and go. 
Many things that were written centuries ago are 
foolishness now. How many religions have come to 
naught ! How many systems of philosophy have per- 
ished ! How many strongholds of unbelief have 
been leveled by the hand of time ! 

But God was not afraid to write a book. He knew 
the end from the beginning. Here is his signature. 
Let his adversaries read it, and bring in their indict- 
ment. They are indeed even now — as for ages past 
— attacking the record. Destructive criticism is 
working hard to destroy the foundations of the Old 
Testament ; fear not. The old Book is a record of 
God's faithfulness, and criticism will dash itself into 
a thousand fragments against the impregnable rock. 
Let men use pick and spade, and dig up the records 
of the past ; let them bring to light the laws and 
customs and gods of the long-buried nations ; let 
them trace the course of history and disclose the 
" environment" of the word in every age ; the rec- 
ord will not suffer, but will shine the brighter, and 
we shall see more clearly than ever that " God is 
faithful." "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory 
thereof as the flower of grass. The grass wi there th, 
and the flower falleth : but the word of the Lord 
abideth forever." 

There is a peculiarity about the written record of 
God's faithfulness : The promise of a Redeemer. 
Sin entered this fair world, then sorrow came, and 
despair would have followed had not God in his 
mercy promised a deliverer. In the garden where 
man sinned, God gave him the promise of victory 
over the evil one. When the transgressor left that 
beautiful home and went out into the thorny world, 
he carried this sweet promise with him, the only con- 
solation of the sinful race. As time went on the 
promise was renewed. The call of Abraham was a 



328 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

forward step, a pledge that God had not forgotten his 
word. "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth 
be blessed." Moses was a nearer approach. God said, 
through Moses, " A prophet like unto me shall the 
Lord your God raise up unto you." In David the 
promise was repeated. And so on till the last prophet 
of the old dispensation spoke plainly of the coming 
of the Lord. In due time Jesus Christ came to save 
his people from their sins. He is the fulfillment of 
all of God's promises of deliverance. Some think 
that God is slack in his promises ; but he is not ; 
he is long-suffering, a faithful God, keeping his 
covenant with the children of men. Now that we 
have Christ, how can we ever doubt the word of our 
Heavenly Father ? 

Let me mention one more witness to his faithful- 
ness. Every child of God u hath set his seal to this, 
that God is true." The record of the past is valua- 
ble. It is an indestructible monument of God's 
fidelity. But there is also an individual, experimen- 
tal, and spiritual witness in the heart of every Chris- 
tian. For many years you have had dealings with 
God. You have trusted him for his grace. When 
you believed in Jesus for the first time, you com- 
mitted yourself to him, and since that time you have 
been following him. He promised to be with you, to 
make his grace sufficient for you. How long have 
you walked with him ? Some of you are gray with 
age, and I know that you have been a long time in his 
service. Answer me ! Has he ever failed you ? Even 
when you feared and almost despaired, did he not 
verify his promise to you ? Has he not been the 
kindest and truest of masters ? Are you not more 
convinced than ever that he will do to trust ? Expe- 
rience is an excellent teacher. We know best what 
we have learned through experience. You have 
heard and seen enough ; your soul is satisfied. Sup- 
pose all the servants of God could rise up now and 



THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD 329 

bear witness to his faithfulness, what a cloud of wit- 
nesses would fill the horizon. There would be no 
room left for doubters and unbelievers and adversaries 
of the Lord. 

We have a faithful God. We can and do trust 
him. All our hope is in him. " Some trust in char- 
iots, and some in horses ; but we will make mention 
of the Lord our God." All that is dear to us we 
have committed to him, and we have the assurance 
in our hearts that he will never fail us. 

1. We have committed our lives to him. Once we 
thought that we could direct our own steps. But 
this self-trust brought us to confusion. It is not in 
man's power to direct his own steps. He is ignorant 
and weak and sinful. He does not know what is best 
for him, and he is not able to do all that he knows to 
be right. The sinful, unregenerate man is at sea 
without compass or chart, driven about by every 
wind, and is often finally dashed to pieces on the rocks 
of unbelief. As children need the guidance and pro- 
tection of a father, so do the children of men need the 
guidance and protection of their Heavenly Father. 
Worldly wisdom and prudence cannot take the place 
of faith in God. The Lord must guide us with his 
eye, because our eyes cannot see the way of love. 

When we come to Jesus we turned over all our inter- 
ests to him, our business, our families, life itself. Now 
we try to manage all our affairs as he directs. The life 
that we now live we live by faith in the Son of God, 
for he alone can guide us unto success. This enter- 
prise shall prosper, if he wills it. Our children shall 
come to usefulness and honor with his blessing. Once 
a dying man said to me, u I could die in peace if I 
did not have to leave my wife and these two little 
girls to the cruel fortunes of this wicked world." I 
said to him, " God reigns in this wicked world. He 
has promised to care for the widow and the orphan. 
Let us commit them to hirn." We prayed. Then, 



330 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

smiling through his tears, he said, " I can trust him. 
He will do what he has promised." His faith was 
not in vain. God cared for his wife and children 
better than he had ever cared for them. Will you 
not fully commit your whole life to him now ? If 
your life has been a failure, you have not committed 
all your ways unto the L,ord, but have leaned upon 
your own understanding. Entrust all to him and 
trust him for all. 

2. We have committed our souls to him. If life, 
with all its important concerns cannot be intrusted 
to human wisdom, of course the immortal soul 
must find a higher and a safer guide. Failure in 
this life is bad enough — we must not fail in the life 
to come. Jesus is a faithful Saviour. He cleanses 
us from our sins, washes us in his own blood. Then 
he preserves us from the evil one during our earthly 
lives. Your soul is in his keeping. Paul said, " I 
know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that 
he is able to keep that which I have committed unto 
him against that day." The apostle did not keep 
himself, — he could not, — but committed himself to 
the faithful Saviour. And this is salvation. We are 
saved now through faith in the Son of God, and 
through faith in him we shall be saved in the world 
to come. 

Where is that land of blessed immortality, the 
home of the soul ? Jesus knows. He is leading us 
to that happy place. We can trust him as we follow. 
If any one asks, " How do you know that you are 
going to heaven?" we point to Jesus, " He is the way, 
the truth, and the life." So when death comes to the 
Christian he can only say, 4 ' Into thy hands I com- 
mit my spirit ! " With perfect confidence he steps out 
of life into eternity. Surely at this time we need a 
faithful Saviour, for we are beyond human help. 
Jesus does not forsake his people in the last extrem- 
ity. How many in the dying hour have borne wit- 



THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD 331 

ness to his faithfulness ! How great and good and 
true he looks as he stands at the gate of death and 
causes his people to triumph over the last enemy ! 

God's faithfulness should inspire us to be faithful 
to him. He keeps every promise. But, alas, we have 
been untrue to him. Perhaps unfaithfulness is the 
most common fault of Christians. It has certainly 
injured the usefulness of many of us, and caused us 
much unhappiness. Let us try every day to be true 
to him. We know how our all depends on his faith- 
fulness. So all his work in the world that he has 
committed to us depends on our faithfulness to him. 
Be faithful in every place, in your business, in your 
home, in your church, and God will love you and honor 
you. And on the last day he will say to you, u Well 
done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been 
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over 
many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord." 

And now, my unsaved brother, let me remind you 
of God's word to you : " If we confess our sins, he is 
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse 
us from all unrighteousness." Is this not a blessed 
promise? God is speaking to you. He knows that 
you are a sinner. He knows that you love sin and 
hate righteousness. Or perhaps you have become 
tired of sin. You have enjoyed "the pleasures of 
sin which are for a season," and wish that you were 
a Christian. But you do not see the way to Jesus. 
Many times your heart has cried, " What must I do 
to be saved? " Here is the way. Go to him and tell 
him that you have sinned against him. Confess your 
sins to him. This is all you can do. You cannot 
purify your heart. The leopard cannot change his 
spots, nor the Ethiopian his skin. Give up jour 
hope in human help. Go directly to the Saviour. 
There is no other way. Why should there be 
another way? This is simple. You can do it, and 
you must do it, brother. The L,ord has not required 



332 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

much of you, but you must do what he has required. 
"Tell him you are a wretch undone." 

Do you not remember when you disobeyed your 
mother? How did you make your reconciliation 
with her? When you could bear the separation no 
longer, you ran to her, and buried your face in her 
lap, and sobbed out your confession of sin. Then 
she wiped away your tears and gave you the kiss of 
pardon. Go in this way to Jesus. Will he receive 
you? Hear his word again, " If we confess our sins, 
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness." " Faithful is 
the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ 
Jesus came into the world to save sinners." How 
can you longer doubt? Try him. Since the fall of 
man penitent sinners have found him faithful to for- 
give sins. He will not fail to keep his promise to you. 



R. R. Acree was born in King and Queen County, Va., 
in 1852. When twelve years of age he was baptized by Rev. 
R. H. Bagby into the fellowship of the Bruington Baptist Church 
in 1865 ; licensed to preach in 1873, and ordained in 1876. 
He was educated at Aberdeen Academy, Richmond College, 
and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. His first 
ministerial work was done as State missionary in Loudon 
County. He has since served with much acceptableness and 
efficiency as pastor in Lynchburg, the First Baptist Church, 
Petersburg, in the Calvary Baptist Church, Roanoke, Va. In 
1893 he entered his present inviting and important pastorate, 
Knoxville, Tenn. Dr. Acree is a genial gentleman, a conse- 
crated Christian, a fine preacher, and enjoys a wide popularity. 
In Mrs. Acree he has a pastor's helper. She is a woman of un- 
usual devotion to Christ and his church, and of skill in church 
work. 




R,R. Acree, D D. 



XXX 

THE CLEANSING BLOOD 

BY R. R. ACREE, D. D. 

"And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.' r 
I John I :. 7. 

THE Bible is the book of the blood. The one 
theme out of which all its other themes grow 
is the blood. 

It is the scarlet thread that binds its parts together 
in unbroken unity. Take it out and the great book 
falls apart, a confused and dismembered mass without 
the power to bless or to save. 

The blood of Christ gives to the Bible its highest 
value. It gives to its types and shadows the sub- 
stance ; to its symbols their sign ; to its prophecies 
their promise ; and to the gospel its good news. Take 
the blood out and the star of human hope, eclipsed 
by an impenetrable cloud of despair, drops into an 
eternal hell. Take it out, and God is a terror, and 
heaven a mockery of our misery. Without his 
blood we can do nothing but despair and die and be 
damned. 

Yes, friends, the blood, the blood, the blood of 
Christ that makes atonement for the sins of the whole 
world, is the foundation of our faith, the inspiration 
of our hope, and the ground of our confidence. Not 
Christ, but Christ crucified is the power of God unto 
salvation to every one that believeth. 

The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us 
from all sin. If sin shuts us up to death and hell, 
his blood opens the gates to eternal life and heaven. 

333 



334 THS SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

If siii has polluted and defiled us, his blood can make 
us white and clean. If sin has enslaved us, it is 
his blood that redeems us and makes us free. If sin 
condemns us under the law and alienates us from 
God, his blood justifies us before the law and recon- 
ciles us to God. 

The Bible, as you so gladly remember, uses many 
illustrations to show how completely the blood of 
Christ delivers us from the power and penalty of sin ; 
it gives life, justification, redemption, reconciliation, 
peace, pardon, purity, and sanctification. No one of 
these illustrations gives a complete idea of what 
Christ does for those who lovingly believe in him. 
Each one of them shows some phase of his work, 
and all of them emphasize the fact of complete salva- 
tion, of how entirely the blood of Christ removes 
every obstacle from between God and our possible 
salvation. 

This text, regarding sin as guilt, as filthy defile- 
ment, and the relation of the blood of Christ to it, 
says : And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleans- 
eth us from all sin. 

The text teaches : 

i. The defilement of sin. 

Sin ! What a word that is ! What a history it 
has ! In what anguish it has been written. Every 
letter a pang, every sentence a sob, every page wet 
with human tears and red with the blood of crushed 
and mangled hearts. 

Who is the grim-visaged monster that lights the 
torch of war and bears it blazing over a trembling 
land? Sin ! Who is the masked enemy lurking in 
the shadow of the night, sowing seeds of discord 
among friends and transforming faith and love into 
suspicion and hate? Sin ! 

Who is the painted temptress that steals virtue from 
the pure, the fair siren who, seated on the rock by a 
deadly pool, smiles to deceive, sings to lure, kisses to 



THE CLEANSING BLOOD 335 

betray, and flings her arms around our neck to leap 
with us into perdition ? Sin ! 

Who transforms homes into hell, fathers into fiends, 
mothers into monsters, brothers into brutes, and sis- 
ters into sirens, and then gathering them into its 
arms flings them weeping and wailing into perdi- 
tion ? Sin ! 

Sin ! What a monster she is ! 
Her home is in the deep, damp dark, where 
Slimy things begot of hell rave and rot. 
Look, if you can, upon her foul progeny! 

The leer of Lucifer is in their eyes and the slime 
of the pit befouls their garments. There they go, 
the liars, the slanderers, the thieves, the fornicators 
and adulterers, the murderers, the infidels, and blas- 
phemers ! Name me, if you can, a sorrow that sin 
has not caused, a defilement it has not made. 

Every anguish that rends the brow, every pain 
that pierces the body, every shame that shadows life, 
every tear that scalds the cheek, every guilt that pol- 
lutes the soul ; the maniac's chain, the felon's cell, 
the lazar house, the coffin, the hearse, the grave, hell 
itself, are the fruits of sin. 

Nor is this all, nor is it the worst. The work 
begun here is consummated in eternity, when sin 
casts both soul and body into hell, " where the worm 
dieth not and the fire is not quenched. " 

Think on these things and tell me if sin is not 
guilt. Think on these things and tell me if we do 
not need to be washed from our sins and cleansed 
from our iniquities. 

But some one says, I am not so guilty as that. 
The picture is overdrawn. Perhaps no individual is 
guilty of every sin, but all are guilty of some sin. 
There is none pure ; no, not one. The seeds have 
been sown, what shall the harvest be ? The wages 
of one sin is death. Some man put into his window 



336 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

as an advertisement some earthenware pigs, and 
wrote this sentence under them : u We are not hogs." 
Some other man passing by saw the sign and the sen- 
tence, and wrote under it: " No; but you will be if 
you live." The wages of sin is death. Look at that 
company of lepers, once so young, so beautiful, and so 
fair. As yet no sign of any malady appears. Wait 
and see. Look now. " The hair and eyebrows have 
fallen from a once beautiful countenance ; the face 
once so fair is livid and bloated and covered with fes- 
tering ulcers ; the lips once firm and strong are gone, 
and the end is not far away." Sin is pollution. Sin 
is death. 

The text teaches : 

2. That the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses 
us from the defilement of sin. 

I see the light kindling in your eye, and I feel the 
joy and thankfulness that is rising in your hearts. I 
join with you in blessing the name of the Lord for 
this gospel. Listen, listen all ye who have seen your 
defilement and bowed your heads in shame and fear. 
Take courage and rejoice, for the blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Guilty, 
grimed, all unclean as we may be, his blood can make 
us clean and pure. 

As Naaman, the leper, came up from the Jordan's 
waters with the pure flesh of a little child, so shall 
they who are washed in the blood of the Lamb be 
made every whit clean. 

You have seen the men who work in the coal mines 
come home from their work. The grime and soot 
of the mine is upon them. Their faces and necks, 
arms and hands are grimy and black. So disfigured 
are they that one scarcely can recognize them. But 
when they stand beside the open fountain and wash 
and are clean, then the old smile comes back to the 
kindly face, and the same eye beams upon you, and 
the same honest hands grip your own. 



THE CLEANSING BLOOD 337 

There is a fountain filled with blood 

Drawn from Immanuel's veins ; 
And sinners plunged beneath that flood, 

Lose all their guilty stains. 

Yes, yes ; it is true ; the prophets and apostles say- 
it is true, the saints in all ages say it is true, the Lord 
God Almighty says it is true — the blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 

During the late war a chaplain went among the sol- 
diers in a hospital and preached unto them the way 
of Christ. He found one man whose eyes were closed 
and who was muttering something about — blood — 
blood — blood — and the chaplain thought he was 
thinking of the carnage of the battlefield, and going 
to him he tried to divert his mind ; but the young 
man looked up and said : " Oh, doctor, it was not 
that that I was thinking of; I was thinking how 
precious the blood of Christ is to me now that I am 
dying. It covers all my sins." 

The text teaches : 

3. That the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from 
all sin. 

The cleansing is complete. The salvation is per- 
fect. He saves "unto the uttermost all them 
that come unto God by him." Their robes are 
" washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.'* 
One day Queen Victoria visited a paper mill, and 
when she saw the filthy rags, exclaimed, " How can 
those be made white? ' ' " Ah, your majesty/' was the 
reply : " I have a powerful chemical process by which 
I take the color even out of those red rags." Some 
days after, the Queen found on her writing-desk a lot 
of the most beautifully polished writing-paper she 
had ever seen ; on each sheet were the letters of her 
own name and her likeness. There was also the ac- 
companying note: " Will the Queen be pleased to 
accept a specimen of my paper with the assurance 
that every sheet was made from the dirty rags she 

2d 



338 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

saw on the back of the poor rag-picker. Will the 
Queen aUow me to say I have had many a good ser- 
mon preached to me in mv mill. I can understand 
how the Lord Jesus can take the poor heathen and 
the vilest of the vile and make them clean and white. 
And I can see how he can put his own name upon 
them ; and just as these rags transformed may go into 
a royal palace and be admired, so poor sinners can be 
received into the palace of the Great King." 

And his blood cleanses from all sin of every kind. 
He is not able to save from some sins and unable to 
save from other sins. His blood cleanses from all sin : 
from sins of omission and commission, sins of thought 
and of desire, sins of words and of deeds, sins of 
childhood and of youth, sins of manhood and of old 
age. His blood cleanses from all sin. 

Finally, let us consider how the cleansing blood is 
applied. 

And yet I need not tell you. You know. Fa- 
miliar as your own name is that text which carries 
with it the power of God and the promise of eternal 
life. 

"Believe" — ah, yes, that is it, "Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." An old 
herdsman, it is said, was taken to a London hospital 
to die. His granddaughter used to visit him there 
and read the Bible to him. One day she read the 
first chapter of first John and when she came to the 
seventh verse, the old man asked very earnestly : 
" Is that there?" " Yes, grandpa," was the reply. 
" Read it again," and she read : " And the blood of 
Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 
"Are you sure that is there?" "Yes, quite sure." 
" Then take my hand and lay my finger on the words 
that I may feel them." And she took the bony fin- 
ger of the blind old man and put it on the precious 
words. "You are sure they are there?" u Sure." 
" Read them again. If any one asks you how I 



THE CLEANSING BLOOD 339 

died, tell them I died in the faith of these words : 
* And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from 
all sin.' " Then the old man withdrew his hands, 
his gray head fell softly upon the pillow and he went 
out and went up to join those who have " washed 
their robes and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb." 



XXXI 

THE MEAT AND MISSION OF THE MASTER 

BY H. F. SPROLF.S, D. D. 

" My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." 
John 4 : 34. 

THERE are three pictures in this chapter worthy 
of the painter's brush. 

The disciples had gone into the city of Sychar, 
about two miles away, to buy food for the little com- 
pany. It was about noon on the third day of the 
journey from Jerusalem to Galilee through Samaria. 
Jesus sat down on the low wall around Jacob's, well, 
hungry and thirsty, with relaxed body, and with 
weary yet gentle face. That is an impressive picture. 
The mighty Son of God, tired and resting. 

When the disciples returned they found him, with 
animated countenance, eagerly talking with a sinful 
woman, who came from the town for water. He 
came to seek the lost, and was always especially 
anxious to find those who had gone farthest away. 
With marvelous skill, he had quickened and satisfied 
the spiritual thirst of this soul, and was full of joy. 
In response to the disciples' entreaties to eat of the 
food which they had brought, he said : "My meat is 
to do the will of him that sent me." For this i 
hunger ; this is my nourishment, my strength, my 
satisfaction. To carry on that work, step by step, 
according to the Father's will, and to have in pros- 
pect its completion on the cross, is my food ; by 
this I have been nourished and quickened. That too 
is an attractive picture. 
340 




H k F. Sproles D. D. 



H. F. Sproles was born near Castilian Springs, Holmes 
County, Miss., January, 1844. Raised on a farm, accepted 
Jesus Christ as personal Saviour and Lord, and was baptized at 
the age of thirteen ; studied in neighborhood schools until seven- 
teen years of age, when he expected to enter Mississippi College, 
but went into the Confederate army, and served to the close of the 
war, in which he was severely wounded. Studied four years in 
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, then at Greenville, S. C, 
from which was graduated in full, May, 1870. Was ordained in 
August, 1867. During vacations of the seminary he remained 
in Greenville, S. C, and studied under Dr. William W T illiams, 
professor in the seminary, and Prof. D. T. Smith, of Furman 
University. Was pastor in Carrollton, Miss., nine years. 
Thence he went to Jackson, Miss., where he has since remained 
as pastor. Is now member of the Board of Trustees of Southern 
Baptist Theological Seminary, and also of Mississippi College, 
from which he received the honorary degree of D. D. in 1890, 
and is president of Convention Board of Mississippi Baptists. 
Was married to Miss R. A. Pickell, Williamston, S. C, in May, 
1870. 



THE MEAT AND MISSION OF THE MASTER 341 

He was sent. " My meat is to do the will of him 
that sent me." His coming was not the caprice of an 
impulsive soul, nor the doubtful experiment of an 
ambitious seeker of fame : it was in fulfillment of a di- 
vine mission. u God sent not his Son into the world 
to condemn the world ; but that the world through 
him might be saved." He said that he was sancti- 
fied, separated, and sent into the world by God the 
Father. He insisted that he came down from heaven 
to do the will of him that sent him. At the close of 
his earthly mission, he said with great satisfaction 
and joy, " I have finished the work which thou gavest 
me to do." 

When it is said, however, that Christ was sent, it 
is not meant that he was compelled to come on an 
unpleasant mission, but merely that his work was in 
accordance with divine counsel. As Paul says, his 
mission was " according to the eternal purpose which 
God purposed in Christ Jesus our L,ord." As Media- 
tor in human redemption, he willingly and joyfully 
came to bring God's message to men, and to do his 
work among them, shouting : " I delight to do thy 
will, O my God." " My meat is to do the will of 
him that sent me." 

To do the will of him who sent him, to deliver his 
message to men, to declare him, to open his heart 
unto men, to complete God's work among them, was 
the food of his soul, the supply of its truest needs, 
the satisfaction of the deepest desires of his nature. 
Meat nourishes, strengthens, refreshes, satisfies. The 
bodily hunger and thirst which our Lord had felt, 
when wearied with his journey he sat down on 
Jacob's well, was forgotten in carrying on the divine 
work in the soul of the woman of Samaria. His soul 
was full of other thought which drove away all sense 
of hunger. He had been eating that meat, he had 
been doing that will, when the disciples were away. 
So grateful had it been to him to be thus engaged ; 



342 THK SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

so earnest and happy had he been in leading a soli- 
tary woman, and in sending her away in full belief of 
his Messiahship to go and bring others to him, that 
bodily appetite ceased to solicit, and the hunger of an 
hour ago was no longer felt. This was his meat — 
that he might be constantly doing God's will, and at 
last complete his work. We know with what joyous 
emotions he said at the close of his mission on earth, 
" I have glorified thee on earth : I have finished the 
work which thou gavest me to do." 

The third picture is inspiring. A crowd of Sa- 
maritans set out with the woman for the prophet at 
the well. Jesus and his disciples looked at the peo* 
pie coming to him through the green fields. They 
saw only the crowd and the fields of springing corn, 
which in a few months would be ready for the har- 
vest. He saw the wide fields of the world's nations 
already white unto the harvest. Raising his hand, 
he said with trembling emotion, " Say not ye, There 
are yet four months and then cometh harvest? be^ 
hold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on 
the fields; for they are white already to harvest." 
Lift up your eyes, that you may see far. Look, and 
you will become interested and prayerful. Becom* 
ing interested, you will wish to enter the fields 
crowded with ripe, golden, and perishing grain. 

As was the Master, so are the disciples. He was 
sent ; so are they. In his prayer for all those who 
should believe on him in every age and place, our 
Lord said : " As thou hast sent me into the world, 
even so have I also sent them into the world. And 
for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might 
be sanctified through the truth." It is his desire and 
prayer that every one of his disciples should enter 
upon the mission which he had fulfilled on his own 
behalf; and, in preparation for that work, that they 
might receive the same sanctification. It is the 
mission of every Christian to do God's will on earth. 



the: meat and mission of the: master 343 

Can there be anything more solemn, more thrill- 
ing, than the conviction that God has a pnrpose in 
one's life, and has given him a commission to fulfill 
that purpose ? This purpose, this mission, from our 
exalted Lord is to carry his message to men, to con- 
vey his Spirit unto them, to reveal his great heart 
unto them, to do his will among them. A more im- 
portant commission was never given to an angel. 

The intense desire of the true Christian's soul, the 
satisfaction of the deepest yearnings of his nature, 
the meat which nourishes and refreshes, is to do 
God's will. _ 

Three things are essential to obedience, (i) There 
must be an obedient spirit. Only such a soul can 
have insight into God's will. Jesus said, "If any 
man will" — is willing, anxious, determined to — "do 
his will, he shall know of the doctrine." Christ's 
will was always in harmony with God's will. The 
will of man is brought into harmony in his regene- 
ration. He asks with the converted Saul, " Lord, 
what wilt thou have me to do?" God's will be- 
comes the law of his spirit. He says, " I delight to 
do thy will, O my God : yea, thy law is within my 
heart." (2) The obedient spirit must have an ex- 
pression of God's will. God's written law is the 
authoritative expression of his will, the transcription 
of his nature. (3) There must be honest effort to do 
God's will. An obedient spirit alone will not satisfy 
the disciple, nor will the performance of deeds which 
are required. The spirit without the doing would be 
only intention ; doing without the spirit would be 
compulsion ; but the spirit going out in the execu- 
tion of God's will is obedience and satisfaction, the 
food of the soul. Be not satisfied with any feeling, 
with a mere movement of the soul toward God ; aim 
at doing his will. Many persons seem to think that 
the great attainment is to be on the top wave of feel- 
ing. It is a greater privilege to be in the performance 



344 TH ^ SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

of duty. " To obey is better than sacrifice. " Doing 
the will of God is more acceptable to him than any 
story one can tell about his enjoyment of religion. 
There is a morbid religious sentiment which will 
set aside the expressed and recognized will of God 
for its own gratification. Often the disobedient revel 
in emotion, and esteem themselves as Christians ex- 
traordinary because they are on a high wave of feel- 
ing. There is no nourishing, strengthening meat in 
this. To do God's will is food. 

This food satisfies. But can we ever do the will of 
God perfectly and therefore eat of that meat which 
Christ ate ? See what he did say. Not the accom- 
plished mission, not the perfected work of God 
among men, but the end which he ever kept in view 
was the food of his soul. " My meat is that I may be 
doing the will of him that sent me, and that I may 
finish his work ; that I may be constantly doing his 
will, and may at last complete his work." This food 
is accessible to the weakest and most imperfect 
among us. We may in everything seek to know and 
do God's will. 

This purpose and effort give nourishment and re- 
freshment. There can be no higher function of the 
human soul than to obey God. To recognize him, to 
believe in him, to love him, to commune with him, 
to come into harmony with him, is to live. Other- 
wise, man no more truly lives than the horse which 
he rides, the ox which draws his burdens, the dog 
which guards his house. The man who can say that 
" God's law, his expressed will, is not a terror, which 
makes me an outlaw, a fugitive ; not an outward ne- 
nessity, which makes me a slave; but an inward force, 
which makes me an obedient child " — that soul feeds. 
To him God's will is not an external necessity, but 
an inward power ; not an unpleasant medicine to 
prevent death, but a pleasant food to nourish life. 
Such a man obeys God to appease the hunger of 



THE MEAT AND MISSION OF THE MASTER 345 

his soul. He feeds, grows, is joyous, and becomes 
strong. 

Watkins, in Ellicott's Commentary, speaks of anal- 
ogies in human experience. " The command of duty, 
the charming power of hope, the stimulus of success, 
are forces that supply to weak and weary nerves and 
muscles the vigor of a new life. Under these the 
soldier can forget his wounds, the martyr smile at the 
lion or the flame, the worn-out traveler still plod on- 
ward at the thought of home. We cannot analyze this 
power, but it exists. They have food to eat that those 
without know not of. n We are not surprised when 
the Holy Spirit says through the Apostle John, that 
those who do God's will shall last. Other things will 
fail. " The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: 
but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever." 
He links himself with the divine order of things, and 
becomes as enduring as God himself. 



XXXII 

THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST 1 

BY C. A. STAKELY, D. D. 

" The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom ; but we 
preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the 
Greeks foolishness ; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, 
Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." I Cor. I : 22-24. 

IT was not until the fullness of the time had come 
that God sent forth his Son. The wisdom of 
Heaven in having the Christ appear just when he 
did has doubtless occurred to us all. It was the right 
time. Not only was it the time specified in the 
prophets, and came after the chosen seed had been 
sufficiently long in the preparatory school, but it was 
after the world had had ample opportunity to test 
every human system of faith. Within the period 
from the creation of man to what is known as the 
Augustan age, in the closing days of which the Sa- 
viour appeared, the world had invented and tested 
every man-made religion now known to it. We have 
in this day no new religions. There may be new 
forms, but 'no new principles of religion. The re- 
ligions which now exist in the world are only de- 
velopments or modifications of principles long ago 
recognized and practised. None of the man-made 
religions ever relieved human misery, none ever 
brought spiritual peace to human hearts, none ever 
worked permanent reform in human lives. It was 

1 Preached before the English Baptist gathering at Manchester, in June, 
1890, when the author was one of the fraternal delegates from the Southern 
Baptist Convention. 

346 




C. A Stakely, D. D. 



Charles Averette Stakely, pastor of the First Baptist 
Church of Washington, D. C, is among the younger ministers of 
the Southern Baptist Convention. He was born at Madisonville, 
Monroe County, Tenn., on the third day of March, 1859, ^ ut 
was reared in Alabama and Georgia. At about thirteen 
years of age he was baptized into the fellowship of the First 
Baptist Church of Montgomery, Ala., by Dr. D. W. Gwin. 
Soon afterward, his father dying, the family moved to La 
Grange, Ga., where young Stakely entered upon high school 
studies, and where, after having studied law under Hon. A. 
H. Cox, he entered the bar, being scarcely nineteen years of 
age. He practised in La Grange until he was nearly twenty-two 
years of age; in the meantime, at the age of twenty, he was 
made county solicitor, which office he resigned to enter the minis- 
try. His first charge was at Elberton, Ga. , the church at this place 
calling him to ordination. During his pastorate in Elberton, in 
1882, he was married to Miss Jessie Davis, daughter of Rev. 
William H. Davis, of Richmond County, Ga. From Elberton 
he went to Augusta, where his labors were brief, and from Au- 
gusta to Charleston, S. C , where he was pastor of the Citadel 
Square Church for about four years. 

Dr. Stakely lent well-known and valuable aid to the Bap- 
tist churches of Charleston in their recovery from the earth- 
quake of 1886. In 1888 he was called to the pastorate of 
the First Baptist Church of Washington, D. C, where he still 
remains. Dr. Stakely received his degree of A. m. from Mer- 
cer University, Georgia, in 1884, and his degree of D. D. 
from Richmond College, in 1889. The magnificent building 
of the First Baptist Church of Washington, D. C, in which the 
Convention held its Fiftieth Anniversary, was erected during Dr. 
Stakely' s pastorate, and is largely the result of his own enter- 
prise and zeal. 



THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST 347 

when every plan of men had signally failed, when 
human ingenuity had made the final draft upon its 
resources, and the last hope of the world for spiritual 
recovery through its own wisdom and power had 
gone, that an all-gracious God introduced, upon the 
foundation of an older true but undeveloped faith, 
that amazing salvation which has for its center a 
crucified Christ. The Cross has been on trial these 
nineteen centuries ; its influence is known ; many of 
its accomplishments have passed into history ; its 
fruits are abroad in the earth. That it has been an 
unspeakable blessing its candid enemies can scarcely 
deny. 

The passage of Scripture which has been chosen 
for a text invites us to consider the crucified Christ, 
whom it presents in three aspects ; first, as the burden 
of the ministry, "We preach Christ crucified " ; second, 
as the contempt of the world, " unto the Jews a stum- 
blingblock and unto the Greeks foolishness"; and 
third, as the admiration of the elect, " but unto them 
which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the 
power of God, and the wisdom of God." 

I. The burden of the ministry. Jesus Christ and 
him crucified was the distinctive burden of apostolic 
preaching. In the text the crucifixion of the Saviour 
is put, by a common rule of rhetoric, as a part for the 
whole. The sublime transaction of the cross is em- 
ployed as the designation of the gospel in its entirety. 
The cross is the center of the Scriptures and around 
it all the doctrines and duties cluster as kindred and 
dependent principles. The blessed lines of both Testa- 
ments meet in it. Hence to preach the crucified Christ 
fully and faithfully is to proclaim every inspired doc- 
trine and to urge every scriptural duty. But why is 
the death of Christ singled out and made the dis- 
tinguishing mark of the gospel ? Evidently on ac- 
count of its moral significance. The mere execution 
of a reputed malefactor could amount to nothing. 



348 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

We should have no sympathy with the idea that 
the Saviour went to the cross as Socrates did to the 
hemlock, merely as a proof of his sincerity and firm- 
ness. The death of Christ cannot be accounted for 
on the ground of martyrdom. As a matter of fact, 
the Saviour was not a good specimen of a martyr. 
" Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me " 
was his thrice-offered prayer in the garden of Geth- 
semane. Surely this cannot be regarded as the utter- 
ance of a martyr. Nor would a martyr have cried 
out as the Saviour did upon the cross, u My God, my 
God, why hast thou forsaken me ? " thus confessing 
failure in the supreme moment, when all the angels 
of God should have come to his support and the flush 
of victory should have been the glory of his counte- 
nance. The death of Socrates was an accident, but 
that of Jesus Christ was a great divine purpose. Speak- 
ing of his own life, Jesus said: " No man taketh it from 
me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay 
it down and I have power to take it again." Neither 
should we sympathize with the position, so popular 
in some quarters, that the death of the Saviour, in 
all the awful circumstances of the same, was only a 
demonstration of divine love. Demonstrations of 
love, however impressive they may be in themselves, 
cannot be an adequate provision for redemption from 
sin. It is consoling to know that the love of God 
for the children of men was expressed in the cruci- 
fixion of his Son. But there was something more in 
the crucifixion than the love of God. Indeed this was 
in it only because something more was in it. The 
death of Jesus Christ struck deeper than a display of 
heroism or a demonstration of love. Isaiah expressed 
it when he said: "He was wounded for our trans- 
gressions, he was bruised for our iniquities : the 
chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with 
his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have 
gone astray ; we have turned everyone to his own 



THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST 349 

way : and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of 
us all." The Saviour of sinners was the lamb of God 
not only for innocence, but for sacrifice. He was slain 
from the foundation of the world. His death was vica- 
rious. He took our place in the day of execution. 
He carried upon his soul the accumulated guilt of 
the world. His sacrifice was an atoning sacrifice. 
The purpose of his manifestation in the flesh was, 
primarily, that he might die, and dying, to expiate 
the guilt of the world. It is not wonderful then 
that the apostle should say, • ' We preach Christ cruet- 
fled." 

II. The contempt of the world. Naturally enough 
such a gospel as this would provoke opposition, and 
opposition of the most radical and persistent kind. 
Beyond all things else it was the object of Hebrew 
prejudice and pagan hate. To the Jew, who required 
u a sign," it became the occasion of stumbling, while 
the Greek, who sought after " wisdom," viewed it 
with feelings of utter disdain. The Jew and the 
Greek in their forms of opposition to the cross of 
Christ, were representative characters. They have a 
numerous progeny in the world to-day. In these two 
characters some of the most popular forms of oppo- 
sition to the cross of Christ find illustration. 

In the Jew we may behold the power of human 
prejudice. Had it not been for this, he would prob- 
ably have embraced the truth. u Can there any good 
thing come out of Nazareth ? \ \ was the voice of the 
Jewish heart. It was enough that the so-called Christ 
was of humble parentage, born in a stable, and cruci- 
fied as an offender. This ascertained, the argument 
was closed and the issue settled. The claims and doc- 
trines of the Saviour, however well founded, could 
only provoke additional contempt. Prejudice had 
shut out the disposition to investigate with honesty 
and fullness. In the Jew, again, we may behold one 
blinded by traditional teaching. His own inspired 

2e 



350 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

Scriptures, had they been consulted, would have led 
him to the Christ ; but these he left for the uninspired 
and, in most cases untruthful, traditions of the elders. 
For this God-dishonoring custom the Saviour often 
reproved and threatened the Pharisees, who made 
void the law of God by their traditions, substituting 
the commandments of men for the commandments 
of God, and the institutions of men for the institu- 
tions of God. These human amendments led them 
away from the true character of the Christ and gave 
them unworthy ideas of his kingdom. Furthermore, 
the Jew was an advocate of self-righteousness as a 
means of salvation. In his own estimation he needed 
a temporal saviour, but the idea of a spiritual saviour 
was far from it. He did good works ; he kept the 
law ; he said prayers ; he paid tithes. The unclean 
Gentile may have needed a more perfect righteous- 
ness, but not he. From this entrenchment of preju- 
dice, blindness, and self-righteousness he could not be 
dislodged without a sign from heaven ; but his de- 
mand for a sign was all a subterfuge. Miracles had 
been worked in his presence by Jesus and the apos- 
tles. Oh, the thousands to-day who are demanding 
additional evidence of Christianity ; who are saying 
that if an angel from heaven should descend and 
whisper u the gospel is true," or God were to write in 
letters of light across the sky, or in some other super- 
natural way bear witness to it, they would accept it ! 
Clearly they are mistaken. u I pray thee, therefore, 
father (Abraham), that thou wouldest send him to my 
father's house, for I have five brethren, that he may 
testify unto them, lest they also come into this place 
of torment." "They have Moses and the prophets, 
let them hear them." " Nay, father Abraham, but 
if one went unto them from the dead, they will re^ 
pent." "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, 
neither will they repent though one rose from the 
dead." If one receives not gospel on the evidences 



THK CRUCIFIED CHRIST 351 

which are already presented, he will not receive it at 
all. Christianity does not profess to convince the 
perverse and headstrong, bnt only to offer such evi- 
dences as will satisfy the plain, the teachable, the 
humble in mind. The existing evidences of Chris- 
tianity are all that can be reasonably demanded. 

But what of the Greek ? The Greek represents 
in general the conceit of human wisdom. He is set 
forth as an admirer of philosophy. He was a ration- 
alist, so to speak. He worshiped reason, or rather 
what he called reason. The reason which he wor- 
shiped was, of course, his own, for he recognized no 
other standard. The reason of a Roman or Egyptian 
or Jew was unreasonable to him unless it accorded 
with his own. The Greek is represented as delight- 
ing in that which has the ring of science about it and 
is capable of demonstration. He would have things 
reduced to the level of man's comprehension and 
would reject what he could not understand. The 
fact is, the Greek has already ordained in his own 
mind who and what God ought to be, how he ought 
to work and act, and what and how he ought to teach. 
He prescribes for God and rejects any and everything 
concerning God which does not accord with his pre- 
scriptions. 

But it may be noticed that the Greek, though pay- 
ing his devotion to reason, is one of the most unrea- 
sonable of men. He practically repudiates proba- 
bility and faith, without which the operations and 
enterprises of the human world must cease. If abso- 
lute and infallible proofs were required in all cases, 
we could scarcely recognize anything on earth as 
truth. Few indeed are the truths which rest upon 
mathematical certainty. In our temples of justice, 
when a human life is at stake, the highest certainty 
which the law requires is probability. A man is 
blind indeed not to see that outside of religion, faith 
is a commoner thing than reason, and probability is 



352 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

relied upon a thousand times to positive demonstra- 
tion's one. Furthermore, the Greek is not happy, 
nor does he make anybody else happy. His princi- 
ple would blight all hope and freeze out all love in 
the hearts and lives of others. 

And still further, he is an example of glaring in- 
consistency. Religion is the only thing in the broad 
universe which he rejects because he does not under- 
stand it. Here is light, a subtle influence pervading 
all space. The Greek does not understand it, yet he 
is not disposed to reject it. Yonder is electricity, now 
illuminating the heavens with sublime splendor, now 
splitting the giant pine of the forest into fragments. 
The Greek does not understand it, neither does he re- 
ject it. Life is a mysterious principle which no man 
can put under the glass of analysis ; it is beyond 
human comprehension, yet under no circumstances 
can any one doubt its existence or its power. The 
Greek should abandon his rule or be more consistent 
in its application. 

3. The admiration of the elect. " But unto them 
which are called, " continues the apostle, " both Jews 
and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom 
of God." Through the effectual calling of the Holy 
Spirit both Jews and Greeks are brought to embrace 
the gospel. God in his own mysterious way is able 
to remove prejudice and break down pride. By the 
clause, " them which aie called," the apostle evidently 
means such persons as under the operation of grace 
have been brought to know Christ and to love him. 
The effectual call is that internal persuasion of the 
Spirit which is answered with repentance toward God 
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Just where the 
divine element in conversion leaves off and the human 
begins, no one is able to determine. It is not wise to 
say that a person is altogether passive or altogether 
active in the great change. The spirit of God effects 
regeneration, but at the same time the blessings of 



THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST 353 

the gospel are ours through the exercise of faith. It 
is enough to know that every regenerate person is a 
believer and every believer is a regenerate person. 
While it is true that we are l \ born, not of blood nor of 
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
God," it is also true that " Christ is the end of the 
law for righteousness to every one that belie veth." 

The prejudice of the Jew being now removed and 
the pride of the Greek overcome, they discern with 
an appreciative mind, they cherish with a delighted 
heart, they confess and advocate with an enthusiastic 
soul. Now that they who were " sometime dark- 
ness !' become "light in the L,ord, n the gospel is pos- 
sessed of admirable features. They now behold in 
the cross, once contemptible, the fullness of power 
and the perfection of wisdom. They now realize 
that * ' the foolishness of God is wiser than men and 
the weakness of God is stronger than men." In that 
which to them was once the symbol of weakness 
they now discern the power of God ; once the perfec- 
tion of folly, now the wisdom of God. The Jew 
freely confesses he knew not what power was until he 
saw it on the cross, and that the most marvelous of 
all signs is the cross itself. The Greek now proudly 
acknowledges that the wisdom which he knew was 
utter foolishness and that the true wisdom is the phi- 
losophy of the cross. What mighty and marvelous 
changes divine grace can work in the thoughts and 
feelings of each ! 

The crucified Christ is represented as the power of 
God and the wisdom of God. The cross is power in- 
deed. Behold its accomplishments on the day of 
Pentecost and in every conversion since. Every new 
birth is a miracle. Every saved soul is a monument 
to the power of the cross. Things physical may have 
strength, which is the ability to resist pressure. 
Power, on the other hand, is the ability to produce 
motion, and in the nature of things, is spiritual. 



354 TH ^ SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

The highest display of power is beheld when the 
Lord God Almighty reaches down to this world of 
darkness and with the long arm of his grace rescues 
a soul from sin. " The cross of Christ is to them 
that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved 
it is the power of God." And even to the end of the 
world it is going to please God by " the foolishness of 
preaching to save them that believe." It is the des- 
pised gospel whose distinguishing mark is the cruci- 
fied Christ, that shall demolish the strongholds of sin, 
achieve the victory over death and the devil, and 
finally restore the world to God. u And I, if I be 
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." 
Jesus was beautiful in his character, in his life, in his 
moral teachings, and through these he must of course 
exert a corresponding influence and charm ; but the 
power which shall overwhelm and subdue is Jesus 
hanging upon the cross, bleeding, dying, dead, and in 
his passion making atonement for the guilt of the 
world. 

The wisdom of God in the crucified Christ is seen in 
the perfect adaptedness of the cross to the necessities of 
the case. The effects of the cross, both manward 
and Godward, are all that could be desired. It se- 
cures all the blessings of mercy and at the same time 
answers every demand of justice. It is only upon 
such a basis that God can be just and yet justify sin- 
ners. The cross presents terms of reconciliation to 
which both God and man can subscribe, — man to the 
complete salvation of his soul, and God without 
violating his rights, or compromising his character. 
The wisdom is seen again in the ability of the cross 
so to save a man as to give him all of his time for 
self-improvement and the performance of good works. 
He is not required to spend one moment in doing 
penance, in making atonement for his sins. The an- 
ger of God has already been appeased by the death 
of Christ. Once for all time, for all men, Christ hath 



THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST 355 

put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. In our 
Christian life we are entirely relieved of the burden 
of atoning for sin, and all the golden opportunities 
of life can be used in developing ourselves in grace 
and promoting the kingdom of truth. 

Still further, as a mark of divine wisdom, the cross 
so saves us as to give the credit of saving to God. 
Every human consideration is removed as a ground 
of boasting, so that no flesh should glory in his 
presence. In the pulpit and in the books we some- 
times talk works, but never at the throne of grace. 
When we are on the knees in prayer before God, we 
cry grace, not works ; we say, ' 4 O Lord, thou hast 
done it, take thou the glory.' ' In the long eternity 
of heaven there will not come up from the bosom of 
any redeemed soul the suggestion of personal merit, 
but the beautiful and endless life will be spent in 
magnifying the Lord for his amazing grace. 

Grace first contrived the way 

To save rebellious man, 
And all the steps that grace display 

Which drew the wondrous plan. 

Grace led my roving feet 

To tread the heavenly road, 
And new supplies each hour I meet, 

While pressing on to God. 

Grace all the work shall crown 

Through everlasting days, 
It lays in heaven the topmost stone, 

And well deserves the praise. 



XXXIII 

CONSECRATION AND ENTHUSIASM 1 

BY H. M. WHARTON, D. D. 

" God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.' ' 
Gal. 6 : 14. 

IT falls to my lot to-night, dear friends, to give to 
you a message from God which you will carry to 
your homes and which I trust may be a blessing to 
you in the ensuing year. I pray that God may lay it 
upon your hearts, and that this service may honor 
his name and bless you and me. 

You will find the message in the letter to the Gala- 
tians, the sixth chapter, fourteenth verse : a God for- 
bid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, 
and I unto the world.' * A consecration that grows 
out of crucifixion, and a glorious enthusiasm crown- 
ing all ! He dead to the world, the world dead to 
him ! He consecrated to Christ and glorying in his 
Christ ! It is a wonderful thing; that which was the 
very synonym of sin and shame eighteen hundred 
years ago and more has now become the pride and 
glory of many millions on earth. 

I was walking once through the Corcoran Art Gal- 
lery, in Washington, and I saw a calm, pale face 
pressed against the grated window of a jail. It was 
the face of Charlotte Corday. A letter appended to 
the picture, written to her father, said : " Dear father, 

1 Preached at the Convention of Christian Endeavor held at Boston. 
July, 1895. 

35* 




H. M. Wharton, D. D. 



Henry Marvin Wharton, pastor, evangelist, lecturer, edi- 
tor, and college president, is one of the best-known men in the 
Southern Baptist pulpit. He is a native of Virginia and is now 
in the prime of life. Among the various instances of signal suc- 
cess which have marked his eventful career one scarcely knows 
which to select as the most notable. His achievement in build- 
ing up a magnificent church of nine hundred members, in the 
heart of Baltimore, out of a beginning of but thirty, and of so 
wisely planning and faithfully laboring that they to-day worship 
in a superb temple valued at seventy thousand dollars, is almost 
unprecedented. His orphanage enterprise does credit to his 
tender Christliness, and the products of his authorship glow with 
strength and beauty. But H. M. Wharton is most widely 
known as the matchless Baptist evangelist. The elements 
which go to make up his wonderful success in this regard are 
partly manifest and partly hidden. A superb personality, a 
simple, pathetic, and often humorous style, an intense earnest- 
ness ever under dignified restraint, and a voice musical as a lute, 
are things seen and appreciated ; but united to these is that sub- 
tile factor we call magnetism, and the sanctifying, crowning 
power of the Holy Spirit. ># 



CONSECRATION AND ENTHUSIASM 357 

do not be distressed about me. It is the crime and 
not the scaffold that brings disgrace. I have com- 
mitted no crime ; I shall suffer no disgrace. " In a 
higher and more glorious sense it may be said of 
Jesus that, instead of himself being disgraced by the 
cross, he lifted it into glory and glorified it, making 
it ever the conquering sign of all his followers. 

Paul was wonderfully enthusiastic ; and, my friends, 
I believe in enthusiasm — an enthusiasm that has a 
backbone to it, an enthusiasm that has life in it, an 
enthusiasm that has weight and power in it, an enthu- 
siasm that has usefulness in it. Paul was wonderfully 
enthusiastic, but his enthusiasm was simply the at- 
mosphere in which the wonderful man lived. A 
physician cannot be very successful unless he is 
enthusiastic about his profession. A lawyer will 
never accomplish much unless he has some enthu- 
siasm about his profession ; and I tell you a Christian 
will never amount to much unless there is enthusi- 
asm in his Christianity. It is just as true of you who 
sit in the pew as of the preacher who stands in the 
pulpit. I love to hear a man's heart beat in his ser- 
mons when I hear him preach, and I love to see 
Christians whose hearts are in their religion when 
they go forth to work for God. 

"God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. " Why, the fact of the 
matter is, there is nothing else in which we can glory. 
Look around you, if you will, in the world, and 
where will you find anything else in which you can 
glory? 

Will you young people glory in your health ? You 
are here now, in the very morning of your life, many 
of you ; your faces are toward the rising sun ; your 
hands are stretched forth toward the opening day, and 
there are many days and years of usefulness for you, let 
us hope ; and yet, ere the morrow's sun may rise, some 
of the strongest, some of the best, some of the most 



358 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

useful, may have been called to the other world. 
We cannot glory in our health ; we cannot glory in 
our strength, in our young manhood, in our young 
womanhood. 

Can we glory in pleasure ? It is said in these days 
pleasure is fairly running away with most of our 
young people ; and I will tell you that most of us who 
have tried it have come to the conclusion that Burns 
was right when he wrote : 

But pleasures are like poppies spread ; 
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed ; 
Or like the snow-fall in the river, 
A moment white, then melts forever. 

We cannot glory in the pleasures of this world. 

Can you glory in fame ? Why, let those who have 
accomplished something of fame in the walks of this 
world answer. Go to the very heights of fame and 
what will you find ? The man who, to-day, leads in 
all the affairs of the nation is forgotten to-morrow. 
Why, it has not been long since a great president in 
this country, who was no longer a president, was so 
far forgotten that when he attended the funeral of 
one of our dead presidents he was only spoken to by 
one man in the whole crowd, and that was by a 
policeman, who requested him to get off the grass. 

But perhaps another says, " How about wealth ? " 
The whole world is running mad after wealth; but 
shall we glory in wealth? It was only a short time 
ago that the great leaders of wealth in this country 
were called upon by one of our most prominent daily 
papers to answer whether wealth brought happiness ; 
and every man answered that wealth simply brings 
care and responsibility, but it does not bring happi- 
ness. Well did Mr. Astor say to a man who sug- 
gested to him that he must be a very happy man, 
" Would you attend to my business for your board 
and your clothes?" "Why," said he, "no, sir." 



CONSECRATION AND ENTHUSIASM 359 

"Well, that is all I get." How much more can any 
man receive than what he can eat and what he can 
drink and what he can put on ? 

We cannot glory in wealth ; but perhaps some one 
may say, "How about the home?" Already your 
heart is longing for the home and the dear ones, and 
happiness perhaps is there ; but can we glory in it ? 
Shall it endure ? I can well remember in my old 
country home down in Virginia, sitting before the 
great log fire, father over in that corner, mother over 
in this, eight children sitting around the fire down to 
the youngest — and I was the youngest, in my little 
chair at mother's side. They talked of heaven, and 
mother, placing her hand upon my head and bend- 
ing my head back until my face was turned toward 
hers, said, " Mother wants her boy to be a good boy, 
serve Jesus, and then go home to heaven." I utterly 
astonished her by saying, " Mother, I don't want to 
go to heaven." "What do you mean, my child ?" 
" You are here, father is here, brothers are here, sis- 
ters are here ; I don't want to go to heaven." It was 
heaven to my child-heart to have them with me. But 
where are they now? Mother has crossed over the 
river, and father and part of the sisters and brothers 
have passed to the other side ; and if my home had 
been my heaven, my heaven is broken up. 

Why, my friends, we cannot glory in the things of 
this world. I might mention them one after another, 
and you might write on every one of them, " This 
will perish with the using." The German poet, 
Schiller, said, as he stood one morning in the door of 
his father's home and looked far away to the moun- 
tain summit that touched the very sky as it seemed 
to him — he said in his heart, " Some day, when I get 
to be a big, strong boy, I will go up to the top of 
yonder mountain, and then I shall be in heaven ; " 
and so one day he started from his home, across the 
fields, and up the mountain's side, over ditches and 



360 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

rocks, and through the brush. By-and-by he reached 
the mountain's top, and when he did, he said heaven 
was as far away as before. You may climb any height 
on earth, and you will find, when you have reached its 
summit, that heaven is as far away as ever. There- 
fore, Paul might say, as he took a view of the things 
in this world, " God forbid that I should glory, save 
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. " 

And while it is true that there is nothing on this 
earth in which we can glory, it is just as true that 
there is every reason why we can glory in the cross. 
You are enthusiastic, wonderfully so. You have a 
right to be enthusiastic. But, my friends, this en- 
thusiasm is intelligent, and the more we know of the 
rightfulness of it, the stronger will we be in the 
glorying of the blessed cross. 

We should glory in the cross because of its doc- 
trines. What are its doctrines? The blessed old 
doctrine of sacrifice. There can be no happiness in 
this world, in its highest sense, unless we sacrifice on 
our part for somebody else. Sacrifice ! Down South 
a gentleman told me that in Nashville, Tenn., he 
attended the decoration of the soldiers' graves. I am 
proud to tell you, as a Southern man, that now, when 
Decoration Day comes in the South, and our beauti- 
ful young women go forth to scatter their roses upon 
the soldiers' graves, they do not stop to ask whether 
the man wore the blue or the gray, but on every 
grave they scatter the flowers, because the men were 
brave and true, and died for their country's sake, as 
they honestly believed. 

A gentleman said to me that he was standing in the 
cemetery at Nashville. He saw a cart come through 
the gate with a marble slab in it. He followed the 
cart. By-and-by it came to a grave. A man was 
standing there, having a place prepared to put this 
slab. He said he walked up to the man, and said, 
" Your son, I presume ? " " No. " " Some near rela- 



CONSECRATION AND ENTHUSIASM 361 

tive? " " No." Well, he did not like to be inquisi- 
tive, and did not further insist. The gentleman 
turned to him and said, " No. I was a member of a 
company during the war. When the time came for us 
to go my wife was ill, my children were young. All 
night long I spent at her bedside, knowing that in 
the early morning I must leave her. Just as the day 
was breaking I heard a knock at my door. I walked 
to the door, and there stood one of my young neigh- 
bors, a young boy of sixteen, knapsack upon his back, 
his haversack filled with provisions ; and as he stood 
there in the early dawn of that morning, the ruddy 
glow upon his manly cheek, the fire of enthusiasm 
blazing in his eyes, he said to me, ' I have come to 
take your place. I am going and will answer to your 
name.' 'Why,' said I, 'my friend, I will give you 
my farm, I will give you my money, I will give you 
all I have. It is just what I have desired, that some 
one might be found to take my place.' ' Oh,' he said, 
4 1 couldn't think of taking anything for it. Then I 
would not be going for you and your wife and chil- 
dren. No, sir ; not a cent, not a cent.' " The young 
man was killed at the battle of Missionary Ridge, 
near Chattanooga, Tenn., and on that tombstone the 
gentleman had placed the young man's name, the 
date of his birth, the date of his death, and under 
all, " He died for me." And I tell you, every one of 
us here may place his hand upon his heart and say 
of Jesus Christ, M He died for me ; " and this blessed 
doctrine of sacrifice should pass into every act of our 
every life. 

And then the blessed doctrine of substitution ! 
Jesus Christ taking your place, you taking his place ! 
He made sin for us that we might be made the right- 
eousness of God in him. 

And then the blessed doctrine of the atonement ! 
That at the cross of Christ the poor sinner finds 
peace and pardon through reconciliation of the blood 

2f 



362 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

of Jesus Christ ! Well might Paul say, who once was 
a blasphemer, who once, like you and me, was a poor 
sinner, without God and without hope — well might 
he say, since Jesus Christ had sacrificed himself and 
had taken Paul's place, had atoned for his sins — well 
might he say, " God forbid that I should glory, save 
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

And then another thing: this old cross has the 
power to attract. Jesus said, " I, if I be lifted up, 
. . . will draw all men unto me ; " and isn't it a fact ? 
I say it deliberately, I say it calmly : I do not believe 
that there is any other power on earth or under the 
heavens that would have drawn together fifty-six 
thousand four hundred and twenty-five souls in this 
July of 1895, save and except the Lord Jesus Christ. 
It is the drawing power, my friends, and it is this 
that attracts the human heart. 

I read some time ago of a mother who went to the 
police officers in New York City and laid all Tier 
money at their feet. She said, "My daughter is 
gone. She has been betrayed, and now, with a 
broken heart and crushed spirit, she has left me." 
She sought for her child in every direction. She 
could not find her, and by-and-by, after the years had 
passed away, one said to her one day, " Perhaps your 
daughter may frequent some one of the dance halls 
and other places of that description in this city. Go 
there and seek her ; " and one day there appeared in 
one of these halls this mother. She went up to the 
superintendent, the man who had charge of the affair, 
and said to him, "Will you do a poor, broken- 
hearted mother a favor?" " Why," said he, "what 
can I do for you? " She said, " My child ; my child 
is lost to me. I have spent every cent ; I have done 
everything ; I have tried everywhere to get my poor 
child back. There is one more hope ; perhaps she 
may come to this place." "Well," he said, "sup- 
pose she does; how could I find her?" She drew 



CONSECRATION AND ENTHUSIASM 363 

from under her shawl a picture, and said, " Will you 
let that hang on your wall ? She might see it, and if 
she does, perhaps she might come back to me." 
"Why," he said, "that is not your picture!" 
" No," she said, " but it was my picture. She would 
hardly know me now, but that is as she did know 
me." Said he, " Yes, the picture may hang there." 
A few nights afterward, after one of the dances was 
over and the great crowd were promenading around, 
suddenly he noticed a commotion over in that part of 
the hall. He walked over there, and he said, " What 
does this mean here?" " Why," some one said, "a 
girl has fainted here just now. She stood looking at 
that picture there." He turned and said, " Bring me 
a carriage to the door there at once ; ' ' and they 
ordered a carriage. In a few minutes' he was in the 
carriage with her. She came to, and said, " Where 
are you taking me?" He said, "I am taking you 
to your mother. She brought that picture and hung 
it there, and she said that perhaps it might bring 
her wayward child to her ; " and in a few moments she 
fell into the arms of her loving, devoted, and forgiv- 
ing mother. 

I tell you, brethren, when Jesus Christ died on the 
cross God hung up a picture in this world which 
draws the poor, wayward, wandering ones from earth's 
remotest bounds up to the cross, and to the Father's 
forgiving and loving arms. God forbid that we should 
glory, save in the cross that does draw men from every 
nation and every clime. Moreover, it has the power to 
convict. If I wanted to persuade a man here to-day 
that he is a sinner, I wouldn't sit down and reason 
with him about it. I wouldn't have a long argument 
about his sinfulness, his depravity. I'll tell you what 
I'd do : I'd take him to Calvary ; I would lead him 
up on the hill ; I would let him see the dying Son of 
God ; I'd ask him to look at those pierced hands, 
those feet that wandered homeless through this world, 



364 THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST PULPIT 

now crushed and bleeding and at rest forever; I 
would ask him to look at that pierced side and 
thorned brow ; I'd ask him to listen to the groan of 
that dying One ; and, as he looked upon that picture, 
I would say, " Your sin did that." Oh, Pd want no 
better argument. 

Another thing about this glorious cross, dear 
friends : it makes us want to give up the world for 
Christ, " by whom the world is crucified to me, and 
I to the world." That is the idea which makes us 
give up everything for God, if truly we are conse- 
crated to his service, and then, oh what a comforting 
power there is in the cross ! You know what I am 
talking about ; I can't tell you. It is in your heart, 
but there never was language that could explain it. 

Young people, I sympathize with you. The world 
offers many allurements and inducements, but we are 
dead to the world. Let us not enter into any of its 
sinful ways. The cards should be utterly repudiated 
by you. The wine should be forever ostracized. The 
dance should be in no way indulged in. The theatre 
should be put back behind you ; and these things 
forever given up. I trust that through your effort a 
new lesson may be taught to our churches, and that 
people when they give up card-playing, and drinking, 
and theatre-going, and dancing, out in the world, will 
not come to our churches to find that our church- 
members are doing the very things they have been 
called upon to give up. Leave these things, leave 
them behind. It is the cross of Jesus Christ that cru- 
cifies the world to us, and us to the world. That may 
be Puritan doctrine, but I stand on Puritan ground, 
and the blessed old Bible is a Puritan book. Let us 
give up the world to be consecrated to Christ. 

Another word: Search the Scriptures; turn your 
enthusiasm to the Bible ; study. 

Another word : Be ready everywhere to go to work 
for the Lord Jesus Christ. 



CONSECRATION AND ENTHUSIASM 365 

If you and I are going to do great work for God, 
let us do personal work, and let us see to it that every 
Endeavorer wins a soul for Christ. 

And now good-bye until we meet again. Among 
all the sermons that I have ever heard in all my life, 
that which made its deepest impression upon me was 
preached by my precious mother. I remember one 
night being led, while yet a child, up to her bedside, 
and they said to me, " Kiss mother and tell her 
good-bye. " I said, 1 1 Where's mother going? " They 
said, "She is going away." I never dreamed that 
mother could leave me. They said, " Mother, here's 
your baby boy come to say good-bye " ; and, as I bent 
over her, I kissed her. It has been nearly forty years 
since then, and yet it seems to me this evening I can 
still feel the sweet, soft pressure of those dear lips on 
mine. They said, " Listen, she is saying something 
to you," and I put my ear close down to her mouth, 
and she said, " Meet me in heaven " ; and they closed 
her eyes and laid her hands across her quiet breast 



